


A Rare Day Off

by madtad1



Series: A Rare Day Off [1]
Category: Toaru Kagaku no Railgun | A Certain Scientific Railgun, Toaru Majutsu no Index | A Certain Magical Index
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-26
Updated: 2020-08-25
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:26:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 39,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24928402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madtad1/pseuds/madtad1
Summary: Mikoto Misaka gets to enjoy a day off from school, trauma, hospitals, death rays, etc.
Series: A Rare Day Off [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1848106
Comments: 61
Kudos: 39





	1. A Good Start

**Author's Note:**

> Standard Disclaimer applies: Not my characters, not my Anime. Purely a work of fanfiction, I don't own these characters.  
> This is my first try at writing a FanFic. Don't know how long it will be, so please bear with me as I try my hand at this. This will touch upon the traumas of the past for Index and RailGun, but should be safe for most people to read, so no real warnings there.

It was looking to be a nice Saturday. A beautiful day in Academy City, not too hot, not too humid, the kind of day to forget about studying, go out on the town and do a little shopping. Maybe have a nice lunch, and just take it easy.

Mikoto Misaka the #3 Level 5 Esper planned to do just that: go out and enjoy a relaxing day. The “Railgun”, as she was sometimes called, had no definite plans for the day. Her only regret was that none of her friends were going to be able to share the day with her. Her roommate slash stalker, Kuroko Shirai, and Kuroko’s partner at Judgement, Kazari Uiharu, had duty all day today and were unavailable to go with her. Likewise, her other close friend, Ruiko Saten, said she had a special project she needed to work on for a class that would take up her whole weekend.

“Well,” Misaka thought, “At least I’ll be safe trying on clothes without having to worry about Kuroko popping in on me while I’m undressed.” She shuddered at the thought of the younger girl’s usual attempts to grab her in embarrassing places, while Saten laughed and poor Uiharu turned even redder than herself.

So, with no set plans or destination, Misaka set off. She noticed that the day was starting off well, because the first shop she came to had a small capsule vending machine out front loaded with the collectible Gekotas. Unable to resist, she put in a 100 Yen coin and out popped the rarest Gekota toy, that she had been trying to collect for two years! She couldn’t believe it! She actually clutched it to her chest and danced around for a minute singing the Gekota theme song, while several people stopped and stared.

Once Misaka realized she had an audience, her face turned a deep red, and she walked off embarrassedly, clutching her prize.

She noticed that her path had taken her close to the park where her nemesis, the money eating vending machine, was lurking. As she was feeling a little dry, she came up to the machine and stared at it.

“All right machine, I’m in a good mood today, so far, so let’s see if we can continue this good feeling. You know what the result will be if you make me unhappy!”, Misaka told the machine. Before doing her usual wind up and spin kick, she decided just to try pushing the button for her beverage of choice. Low and behold, with a whir and a clunk, out came her cider.

“What?!” exclaimed Misaka, “This can’t be happening! My rare Gekota toy, and now this machine actually gives me my requested drink for free!”

Misaka stopped, and slowly started to look around, carefully examining her surroundings. She was suspicious that someone was pulling an elaborate prank on her. She carefully extended her electromagnetic field to see if anyone was hiding nearby, could detect no Espers near her. Actually, there was no one near her in the park. She took a deep breath and had a sigh of relief. She went and sat on a bench in the shade and popped open the can and took a drink.

Then her eyes went wide! “I don’t’ believe it!”, she thought.

Attached to the bottom of the can was a limited edition, collectible, Gekota pin! Misaka felt faint. Hands shaking, she slowly detached it from the can. Engraved on the back of the pin was “#7 of 999”. [N.B. 7 is considered a very lucky number in Japan]

Misaka kissed the pin and quickly attached it to her purse. She then paused a moment and thought about the last pin she had put there and reflected sadly for a few moments. She then leaned back on the bench, threw back her head, rested her arms on the back of the bench, and thought about what a lucky day she was having so far.


	2. It Was Going So Well...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Standard Disclaimer applies: Not my characters, not my Anime. Purely a work of fanfiction, I don't own these characters.  
> This is my first try at writing a FanFic. Don't know how long it will be, so please bear with me as I try my hand at this. This will touch upon the traumas of the past for Index and RailGun, but should be safe for most people to read, so no real warnings there.  
> FYI, [Things in brackets like these are author notes]

Draining the can, Misaka fired it off into the recycle bin and got ready to move on with her shopping. So far, her day had been magical, so she couldn’t wait to see what else awaited her. As she crossed the park, heading toward the exit that would put her closest to the next store she wanted to visit, she stopped and stared. Ahead of her, huddled on a bench, was what looked like a child bundled in sheets, clutching their knees to their chest, rocking back and forth, and apparently crying.

Worried, Misaka started slowly approaching the person when she heard faint cries of “Touma, Touma, I am so hungry! Where are you? You left me alone with no food again!” was the plaintive refrain coming from the white clad girl.

Misaka stopped and face-palmed. She instantly knew who this was. It was that Idiot, Kamijou Touma’s strange friend, Index. She apparently is a Nun, but Misaka was never clear for what Church or religion. Also, Kamijou had stated several times that Index was a virtual black hole when it came to food and constantly ate him out of house and home. On the other hand, it was unlike him to just abandon Index for long periods of time like this, so maybe something was seriously wrong.

One thing was for sure, it looked like her perfect day was about to end.

Misaka sighed softly and slowly walked up to the anxious Index. Index had her face buried in her knees and appeared to be crying. She didn’t notice Misaka’s approach at all. Misaka took one more look around to see if the Idiot was anywhere in sight, to no avail.

She knelt down and softly said, “Hey. Index. Index, it’s me Misaka Mikoto . Do you remember me? Are you ok”

Misaka didn’t want to touch Index out of politeness. For one thing, Index was a Nun and Misaka didn’t know etiquette regarding touching a Holy person, although she did recall seeing Touma manhandle her once or twice. Secondly, she didn’t want to startle or scare her by just seeming to grab her when she was in a somewhat vulnerable state. Thirdly, she had seen Index bite the living heck out of Kamijou when she was angry!

Index slowly raised her head and her sad green eyes peered out and focused on Misaka. In a slightly dead voice she said, “Oh. It’s only you.”

Then, suddenly her eyes grew as big as saucers and Index jumped up so that she was standing on the bench making herself (temporarily) taller than Misaka. She thrust her finger forward so it was pointed at Misaka’s face. 

“You!!!” Index cried, “What have you done with my Touma?! Did you barbeque him? Did you chase him until he could run no more, then have your way with him?! Are you here to tell me you finally turned him to ash with your Demon powers, cruel girl?! Is that why he hasn’t returned to me?!”

Index collapsed onto the bench, crying, and she whispered so softly that Misaka wasn’t sure what she heard. It sounded like: “Did you take away my world?”

Misaka fell to her knees in front of the little Nun, shocked beyond belief. While she had in the past lost her temper with the Idiot, and might have chased him around the city while firing lightning bolts at him on... several occasions, she couldn’t believe that Index actually thought that she was evil and would kill Kamijou! She felt ashamed that her actions would cause the little Nun to have such a low opinion of her to actually believe she would kill him in cold blood. Her eyes started to water.

“Index-san…Index-san, believe me, I could never do that to Kamijou! I am ashamed that my past temper displays have made you even think that I could do something like that.” Misaka said. “Especially not after Kamijou saved me. How long has Kamijou been missing? I can ask my Judgement friends to start a search!”

Index Librorum Prohibitorum lifted her head again and looked into Misaka’s eyes. Misaka felt like her soul itself was being probed by those deep, green eyes; it felt like Index was staring into her eyes for a day searching for something, even though it was only a few seconds. Whatever Index was looking for, she was satisfied with what she found, because she gave a small nod to herself. 

“Touma has been gone for FIVE HOURS!”, shouted Index, “He said he had to go to special classes today, but he didn’t say it would be all day! He always leaves me home alone, with not enough food. And I get lonely and hungry. So, I went to try to find him, but he never told me where his school is, so I came here, because I know he comes here, because he told me you always try to electrocute him here!” And tears started trickling down Index’s cheeks again.

Again, Misaka was forced to face-palm. No crisis, Kamijou wasn’t off getting himself killed. Index was just…hungry… OK, Misaka decided. I am not going to let this spoil what has been a great day so far. I’m going to make it up to Index and the Idiot by taking her to eat.

“Index, please don’t cry, those classes often go very long. I’m sure Touma is OK. What could possibly happen at school?”  
[Yes, I know, this IS Touma we are talking about, but that’s another story for another day]

“Are you sure?”

“Absolutely! My friends in Judgement know he’s my friend and would contact me if he needed help. Anyhow, you are hungry and I’m a little hungry too because it’s lunchtime. Would you like to be my guest for lunch today? I would love to sit and get a chance to talk with you and learn a little about you. We’ve never really had a chance to talk by ourselves. Please?”

“You really would not mind?”, Index asked, with hope of food in her eyes.

“Of course not, after all, anyone who has to deal with that Idi…Touma like we do should have some time to compare notes! Come with me, I know a wonderful all you can eat Shabu-Shabu place near here, with private rooms that I think you will love!”

......................................................................................................................................

Sitting in remedial class, Kamijou suddenly visibly shivered and shook, as a large, ice-cold sweat drop ran down the back of his neck. It felt as though someone had danced over his grave. 

“Such misfortune!”


	3. Shall We Dine?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Standard Disclaimer applies: Not my characters, not my Anime. Purely a work of fanfiction, I don't own these characters.  
> This is my first try at writing a FanFic. Don't know how long it will be, so please bear with me as I try my hand at this. This will touch upon the traumas of the past for Index and RailGun, but should be safe for most people to read, so no real warnings there.  
> FYI, [Things in brackets like these are author notes]

“C’mon, let’s go eat!” said Misaka as she got up from her knees. She stretched out her hand to Index to help her up from the bench. 

“Is it ok for me to reach out to you or touch you, Index-san? I’ve never dealt up close with a Nun before, so I don’t want to cause offense,” asked Misaka.

“Treat me like you would any other person, please. I can explain more once we are a little more private. And please, just call me ‘Index’”.

“And please call me Misaka. Ah, here we are. I hope you like this restaurant!”

The two girls entered the Shabu Shabu restaurant where they were greeted by the wonderful scent of cooking foods coming from the different tables and rooms. They were taken to a private room at the back of the restaurant, at Misaka’s request, where she confided in the manager that Index had quite an appetite for such a petite person and to be prepared to bring a larger than usual quantity of food for the two of them.

[If you’ve never had Shabu Shabu, you don’t know what you are missing]

A large pot of steaming broth was brought and set on the burner on the table between the two. Large platters of thinly sliced different cuts of beef and pork, several varieties of mushrooms, cabbages leaves, sprouts, etc. were placed on the table, along with steamed rice, glasses of water and two pots of tea. A small bell was placed on the table to be rung if any refills were required.

Misaka thought Index’s eyes were going to bulge out of her head at the sight of the feast. She literally looked stunned.

Both of them clasped their hands and said, “Itadakimasu” and for poor, starving Index, her feast began. They each selected the meats and veggies they wished to enjoy and placed them in the pot for a few moments to cook. Then, dipping them in Ponzu sauce savored every bite. 

“So good!” exclaimed Index as she ate. Her chopsticks were almost a blur of action, cooking, dipping eating then repeating.

Misaka, while hungry, was stunned at the sheer volume of food that the petite Nun was able to put away in such a short amount of time. She realized that, if anything, Kamijou had been understating her hunger. 

After the first twenty minutes, the feeding frenzy slowed down to a much more normal pace and Misaka and Index were able to resume their conversation. Naturally it began with…

“Index, you are obviously not a student here, how did you meet Kamijou? Are you related?”

Index looked really nervous and couldn’t, or wouldn’t, meet Misaka’s eyes. She actually stopped eating. There was an uncomfortable silence. 

Then, in a small voice, Index almost whispered, “Touma said I’m not supposed to talk about that. It’s not safe. But I know you know about magic and have helped Touma in the past. I looked in your eyes earlier. You have a good soul, but it has seen so much evil…” And her voice trailed off.

Misaka sat stunned, her eyes open wide. “What has he told you about me?”

“Nothing,” replied Index, “Only that he wishes that he could bring back the smile to your face again that he has seen in the past. I know something happened. Something horrible. Something so horrible that it disturbed his sleep for days, but he never talked of it.”

Misaka could not help it any more, the pain, the memories, the horrors flashed through her mind again. Now, hearing that Touma suffered as well was too much. The tears started falling, and then the next thing she knew she was sobbing uncontrollably in Index’s arms. Somehow Index had almost teleported like Kuroko to catch and hold her. Even though Index looked like someone much younger and frailer than she, she held and comforted Misaka like her Mom would have done: gently rubbing her back, patting her head, and murmuring soft calming words to a frightened, overwhelmed child. For all of her outer toughness, her tomboy appearance, right now she was just a little girl who was overwhelmed by all the horrors she had seen.

Eventually Misaka regained control of herself and dried her eyes with her napkin. Her cheeks were flushed with embarrassment as she shyly looked at Index and said, “I’m so sorry. Please forgive me. Here I wanted to make a nice lunch for you and I spoiled it by making a crying mess of myself and soaking your robes with my tears.”

“Ah, my robes are my walking church! They are a place of worship and of healing. You needed a release and I was blessed enough to be able to help you.”

After making sure that Misaka was going to be ok, Index made her way back to her side of the table and began eating again, albeit more slowly. Her eyes met Misaka’ several times, but in a gentle way.

Misaka, for her part, tried to eat. She looked at Index several times, and then finally said, “Let me start.”

Index said, “Are you making your confession to me?”

Whomp! Misaka’s face turned a deep shade of red! She started waving her hands frantically in the air! “No, nothing like that! “I’m not in love with you or interested romantically or se, se, se…”

This, in turn, made Index’s face turn red and she started to wave her hands around. “Why would you say something about romancing me?”

They both stopped, each took a deep breath, and paused. “Um, I think we have had a language thing here,” said Misaka, “In Japan, if someone asks if you are making a confession to them, you are asking if they are in love with you…romantically. I forgot you are a Nun and it had other meanings.”

Index, shocked, “Oh my! I definitely meant that Ecclesiastically! Oh no! OH NO!!”

They looked at each other’s bright red faces for another five seconds and then both of them collapsed in laughter, holding their sides and rolling on the tatami, laughing until they thought their sides would split. Then just as the laughter tapered off and they started to sit up, Index, of all people, blew a kiss at Misaka and started them both off again!

Finally, the two were laughed out and Misaka was able to ask one of the questions she had been waiting ask. “Index, if I may, what is your Church? I pretty sure it’s not Catholic, because you don’t resemble any Catholic Nun I’ve ever seen before. No offense.”

“None taken. I am a Nun of Necessarius, a branch of the Church of England. Due to the nature of my…mission my robes are a mobile Church and Sanctuary and provide me protection from harm and magic.”

“So…if I wanted to tell you anything, and, even though I’m not a Christian, and I ask you to listen as if it were a Church confession, you could never reveal it to anyone else, no matter how awful it is?” Misaka asked in a small, quiet voice.

Index opened her mouth to answer, and then closed it. She stopped and thought deeply. She knew there was no evil in this girl, but she also knew that this girl had seen great evil. Perhaps Misaka was thinking that what she had seen was burdened on her soul. Misaka was obviously in need of someone she could open herself up to who would not judge her and had decided to place her trust in Index.

“Yes, Misaka-san, if you are confessing to me under the auspices of the Church, then that is sacrosanct and will go with me to my grave. Only we two will ever know what you tell me. I will listen, I will not judge, but I will try to help you with any questions you may ask me to the best of my abilities. Your religion, your beliefs do not matter for this; think of it as two good friends trying to solve a secret problem.”

“But,” Index continued, “I don’t think this is the best place for this conversation here. We are almost done and this is not the most private. Touma’s dorm room is too public. Should we go to yours?”

“Wait! You share his dorm…never mind, not important now. Mine is also too public. [Thoughts of Kuroko “popping” in, molesting her, and worse yet, finding out things she should never know] But I have a small suite nearby that we can use that is totally private. And, as a bonus, we can have tea and cakes sent up!”

With that decided, Misaka settled the bill, and the two ladies left, heading for Misaka’s stealth base for dismantling the Level 6 project that was now thankfully ended.


	4. New Chapter Coming

Sorry, sometimes real life gets in the way of the fun and interesting things I like to do. Tomorrow will be a busy day for me as well, although I hope to have time in the afternoon to finish the next chapter. 

Fair warning, it is longer than the previous and darker. If you are looking for battles and fighting, this may not be the story arc for you. This is going to be an exposition type story. More psychological. I have other stories I have been plotting out. Some set in this world, some in others. They may be in the M catagory and rather much more mature and dark but let's see.

Please, if you have constructive criticism, feel free. I have not read any of the manga or light novels, most of this is based on my memory of watching the videos on NetFLix, so If I get a detail wrong I apologize. I will replace this with the real chapter, if I can figure it out.


	5. That Was Unexpected

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Standard Disclaimer applies: Not my characters, not my Anime. Purely a work of fanfiction, I don't own these characters.
> 
> This is my first try at writing a FanFic. Don't know how long it will be, so please bear with me as I try my hand at this. This will touch upon the traumas of the past for Index and RailGun, but should be safe for most people to read, so no real warnings there.
> 
> OK, this Chapter is dark, psychologically dark. It deals with mental breakdown, dealing with death, self-harm, violence, etc. If these things may disturb you, this might be best skipped. While this is not really touched on anywhere in the Anime, it could have happened.  
> FYI, [Things in brackets like these are author notes]

Misaka and Index stepped out of the restaurant into the brilliant sunshine and started walking sown the sidewalk, casually looking into store windows as they went. Before too long they reached the hotel and entered the lobby where Misaka stopped by the desk and placed an order for tea, cider, and cakes to be sent up to her small suite. She then escorted Index up to the room and let her in. 

The two of them took a few moments each in the bathroom to freshen up after the heavy lunch and equally heavy emotions, before making their ways to the sitting area of the room. By the that time Room Service had arrived and quickly and efficiently set up small table with two pots of tea, some cans of (non-alcoholic) cider, cookies, and various slices of cakes, along with napkins and plates.

Once they settled themselves comfortably, Misaka poured a tea for Index and herself and served Index a plate with a slice of chocolate Opera cake and some cookies and told her to help herself after that. Index literally looked like the girl in the candy store.

Misaka took a small sip of her tea and nibbled on a cookie and gave a sigh. “I have never been able to talk to anyone about this,” she said, “Not even my closest friends, my family, no one. Not even with the Idio…Kamijou, and he was there for part of it…”

Index just smiled gently and nodded her head.

After a long pause, Misaka said softly, “I think they would hate me. Think of me as a murderer. A terrorist. I have horrible dreams where everyone I know and love are laying at my feet. Dead. And my hands are covered with their blood. And I wake up shouting and the feeling of blood is still there, even if I wash and scrub my hands forever in the bathroom!”

“Why do you think you have this dream?” asked Index.

“Because I killed my Sisters” whispered Misaka, looking down at her lap, tears threatening again to pour from her eyes.

Index could not have been more shocked than if Misaka had used the full force of her powers on her. She sat still for a few seconds. There was no way that the soul she had seen through this girl’s eyes had committed murder, she would stake her own soul on that. Index knew she was a bit ignorant of modern things, she knew that she could not really work magic on her own, she knew she need Touma and others to help her navigate Academy City, and she KNEW that Misaka was no murderer. She also knew that if she or someone else could not help Misaka with this burden, that the weight would keep growing until it broke her. That break would either be mental or moral, and either would be bad and undeserved. 

Index drew a deep breath, squared her shoulders, and said, “Misaka, please look at me. Look me in the eyes for a moment. Please.”

Misaka raised her head very slowly, afraid of what she might see on the little Nun’s face. Rejection. Fear. Disgust. Hatred. A thousand thoughts raced through her mind. Timidly she looked at Index and saw a gentle smile and intense gaze. Index’s green eyes captured hers and held them in a powerful way. Misaka felt no fear, hatred, or rejection from Index. More importantly, Misaka felt no fear OF Index.

Index leaned forward and when she spoke, Misaka more felt than heard the words. “I am Index Librorum Prohibitorum; my magic name is Dedicatus545, "The devoted lamb protects the knowledge of the strong”. This I swear to you: unburden your soul to me, I will listen, I will not judge, I will do all in my power to answer your questions, and to help shoulder and alleviate your pain. That of which you speak to me is sacrosanct and protected by my vows to my Church and my God. I swear by all that is Holy that what we discuss will stay with me to my grave.”

Misaka swore a brief white light swept through the room as Index said this. She felt a little calmer. Index finally blinked and Misaka felt that her gaze had been released.

Index looked at her again and said, “How did you kill your Sisters? More than one? I still don’t see the taint of murder on your soul.”

Misaka: “I caused over 10,000 of my Sisters to die horrible, painful, mutilating deaths.”

Index choked. “Ten…ten thousand? Sisters?”

“Let me start at the beginning…” Misaka described to Index how she was tricked that the age of 6 into giving a DNA sample to supposedly help cure a type of Muscular Dystrophy disease. That was used to produce clones of herself for military applications, but they didn’t become as strong as her, so the project was shelved. Until the Level 6 project came along and decided to use them to be slaughtered in a vain attempt to boost Accelerator from Level 5 to Level 6.

“Now is the part where you will really probably hate me and not want to ever see me again, because it involves Kamijou. I won’t blame you. If after today you tell me to never see you or him again, I will do so because of what you are doing for me.”

Index made no comment but leaned forward slightly.

“From this point on, the timeline is a little confusing, because I don’t know when you met Kamijou or when he exactly figured some things out, but I will tell what I know from my point of view. As we both know now, Kamijou can’t help trying to rescue anyone he thinks is in trouble, even at great risk to himself.”

Index chuckled and nodded.

“This was before I knew about the Level 6 project and the Sisters. I was by myself and some rough characters were harassing me,” Misaka continued, “and Kamijou saw it. He tried to rescue me, not knowing I was a Level 5 and I thought he was trying to save the punks from my wrath for attempting to assault my virtue. So, long story short, after he tried to drag me away from them, they tried to fight with us both, I zapped all of them and then ended up chasing Kamijou for miles, throwing lightening bolts at him with him crying…”

Both girls together: “Such misfortune!”

Cue nervous laughter from them both.

Misaka continued, “I kept running into him, always in that little park by the vending machine. And the fact that he could stop my lightening with his hand and then run off almost laughing would make me so mad, I could hardly take it. So, I would chase him again and again. I guess you must have met him around that time, since you know about it.”

Index nodded again, not wanting to interrupt so that Misaka would continue her story.

“Then the rumors started about me having a twin appearing in the city. Rumors about…clll…clones.” Misaka visibly swallowed. “I’m sorry, this next part will be really hard. I’ve tried to block it out, but that makes it even worse. I’ve never told anyone this part…give me a moment…”

“Take all the time you need”, said Index softly.

“I…I was at that park, having a drink, when I saw myself,” said Misaka softly. “I thought I was dreaming for a moment. But I walked over, and it was me, dressed as me, but wearing a weird set of goggles on top of my…her head.”

“She introduced herself as Misaka 9982 and explained that she was out walking before she had to ‘do something’. She knew I was “The Original” but couldn’t tell me more because I didn’t have clearance. We spent several hours talking arguing, eating an ice cream and…[SNIFF] bonding. I gave her a Gekota pin I had and pinned it on her skirt so she would look a little different from me. She said it was the first present she had ever received and she would treasure it for the rest of her [deep breath, sob] LIFE!”

Index waits patiently while Misaka takes several deep breaths to get her emotions somewhat under control. 

“Now that I knew there were clones of me, I was wishing they didn’t exist. It was one the most horrible things I’ve done. I found out where 9982 went, through a friend. It was a rail yard. I got there and saw the Level 5 they were trying to advance to Level 6, Accelerator… had…had…he…her…Oh God, Oh God!” Misaka started swaying, her face turned as white as Index’s robes.

Index leapt from her chair, caught Misaka as she started to fall, and pushed her head between her legs to keep her from fainting. 

“Shhh, shhh, shhh, Misaka. Deep breaths. Deep breaths. I’m here. Your safe.” Summoning a strength she didn’t know she had, Index picked the virtually unconscious girl up and maneuvered her over to the small sofa where she laid Misaka down and elevated her legs. Next, she went to the bathroom and wet a washcloth with cool water and placed it gently on Misaka’s head.

After a few minutes Misaka blinked a few times and her eyes came back into focus. Index was right there next to her, patting her hand, and staring intently at her face. 

“How are you feeling?”, asked Index, “You really gave me a fright there for a moment. Do you need to take a break, Misaka?”

“Much as I would like to, if I stop know I may never start again. I won’t lie to you. I’m frightened, Index. What I see when I close my eyes terrifies me. I’m afraid to tell you. Misaka 9982…I killed her. I might have saved her. I rejected her; I rejected all my Sisters. I didn’t know anything about them before 9982, but my failure to listen, to love my Sister…[whispering] killed her. I’m a horrible person.”

“Misaka, I promised I would listen, but, listen to me, I promised I would listen *without* judging. But I would help you with your pain. Hold my hand, I will share my strength.”

Misaka looked at Index who just had a serious look that contained no mockery and no anger.

“I got to the railyard too late. It was awful…Accelerator had…had…torn off Misaka 9982’s left leg and thrown it aside. He tossed her around, hurting her as much as he could. I tried to stop him, but I didn’t realize what his powers were and barely delayed him. He mocked me as he told me he was going to kill her! I saw her crawling, with only one leg and thought she was trying to get away, but all she was trying to do was get to that stupid button I had given her that had fallen off when he ripped off her leg!”

Misaka started crying again.

“I started fighting with all my strength with him, but he just brushed me aside like I was nothing and then crushed her to death by dropping a train car on top of her as she clutched that pin to her chest and smi…smi…smiled at me! Oh God!”

Index had heard it spoken of by others in the Church of someone howling in anguish from the depths of their soul, but had never before experienced it in her life. Misaka’s howls were like what Index imaged a demented, tortured soul in the depths of Hell might sound like. They were ripping from deep within the girl. Her spine was arched, her head thrown back like a person in the midst of a seizure. And as every one ended, the next one was even worse. Index started to panic as she thought that it was possible the Misaka might possibly have lost her sanity reliving the horrors that have been tormenting her.

Index did the only thing she could think of: she tackle hugged Misaka. The little Nun would normally be no match for the RailGun, but this was not a normal situation. Index wrapped her arms around Misaka and bore her down onto the sofa. Index straddled, hugged her and shook her, trying to break her out of her hysterical state. 

“Misaka, Misaka! It’s Index. I’m here, I’m here. You’re safe. You’re safe. I have you. Please come back to me. Please Misaka.” Index was crying she was so frightened for Misaka, lamenting her inability to cast any spells that could help Misaka. Time seemed to stretch to infinity.

However, it appeared the full body hug seemed to be working. Slowly. The howling was the first thing to stop. Then slowly the thrashing stopped. Index took no chances and kept her grip on Misaka. She had much experience from grabbing Touma and hanging on while biting his head, so she knew how to maintain an almost wrestling style grip. Misaka’s body gradually relaxed and went limp. Her eye lids fluttered and her eyes rolled around a little and then gradually refocused.

Index kept her grip while looking at Misaka’s face. Misaka looked like she had been through a war. Her hair was soaked with perspiration, her skin was pale, and her respiration was shallow and rapid. She suddenly realized just what her situation was. She was lying on a sofa with a Nun wrapped tightly around her, staring intently at her face.

[At 177th Judgement Office, Kuroko’s two pigtails suddenly elevate straight up into the air. “Onee-chan?!”]

Index looks at Misaka, “Are you back?”

Misaka’s cheeks turn red as she realizes that the little Nun has completed wrapped up her body in a way that Kuroko can only dream of, and she is wondering why. 

[At 177th Judgement Office, Kuroko’s two pigtails start spinning. “Who is with my Onee-chan?!”]

Misaka says with great embarrassment, “Uh Index, can you please let go? I’m having trouble breathing. I’m ok, but what happened? How am I on the sofa? Why are you wrapped around me? Oh my God, did I attack you?!”

Index slowly unwrapped her almost death grip from Misaka and slowly stood up and stretched. She looked at Misaka who slowly got up and stretched as well. 

“No, I am well. You did not attack or hurt me, but I apologize because I was forced to attack you to prevent you from hurting yourself. Are you injured at all? I had to attack you almost like I do Touma to keep you from harm.”

“No, Index-sama, thank you. My throat hurts badly and I feel a little sore, but I am not hurt. What happened?”

“I do not want to hurt you with my words, Misaka, but you just relived an ordeal with me. It was to the point where I feared you were going to have a mental or psychotic break. I am so sorry for all that you have had to endure; I am glad you felt confident enough to allow yourself to unburden your worst memories with me. I’ll be honest, I’m not sure how you lasted this long holding this inside you.”

“Oh…”

“Misaka, your throat is sore because you were beyond screaming. Your cries were the howls of someone who’s soul was being wrenched from their body by Satan himself. If it had continued, I honestly would have called for magical backup to see if you were possessed, I was that frightened for you! You were thrashing and straining your body to such a degree I feared you would hurt yourself, that is why I tackled and grappled you. It was the only thing I could think to do.”

Index poured more tea for both of them and gave some cookies to Misaka, saying, “Eat and drink this, you need to restore yourself a little before we continue.”

“Index, you need some too, after what I put you through.”

The two girls sat and ate and drink in silence for a few minutes, alone in their thoughts. Then, Misaka said, “I guess it’s fortunate, the room was well sound proofed as it seems no one came to investigate the howls…”

“How are you feeling now?” asked Index. “Can you continue?”

“I have to. This next part is important for you too. This is the part where you will learn how I gave Kamijou those nightmares.”

Index, despite her promises, despite her resolve, couldn’t help but give a little gasp at that statement.

“Index-sama, I told you that you would probably hate me when I was done for what I did. That includes what happened to Kamijou. I know you said you would not judge me for my sins in my confession, but I release you from that promise with regards to Kamijou. I had no idea that he had suffered so badly, he does not deserve that. He always acts so carefree, like nothing that happens ever affects him or bothers him afterwards. I will apologize to him after our afternoon wholeheartedly and unreservedly. And then, if you tell me, I will disappear from your lives.”

“Oh, Misaka, it can’t be that terrible. You didn’t create the clones; you didn’t create the project.”

“Yes, but I didn’t react fast enough to stop it. I didn’t try to reach out to the Sisters to talk to them and get them to rebel against the project! I could have done something sooner! Index, Misaka 9982 was [disgusted tone of voice] bred to be killed by Accelerator. And she knew it. And she knew she was going to her death and went anyway, willingly, “Misaka spat out angrily. “And I’m so angry about that. I could have tried to talk her out of it, if I had bothered to see what she was doing. I could have tried to track down the Sisters that followed her to their deaths! But no, I sat on my hands and did nothing until Misaka 10032!! I killed another FIFTY Sisters by doing nothing!”

“You did nothing?”

“Well, I did start attacking the research centers that were working on the projects and destroying them, but in the end, it achieved nothing. Nothing! It was a diversion that kept me from actually stopping the project. All they did was open more research centers than I could destroy.”

“But, Misaka, you only know that now by hindsight. At the time you did what seemed right.”

“But, don’t you see Index! If I had just talked to the Sisters instead, maybe I could have convinced them to abandon the madness and rise up against the stupid damned plan!!! There were over 10,000 of them left! More than enough to fight off the evil bast…men who were doing this! Fifty! Fifty more died because I was a stupid little girl!”

Index realize that this was becoming a circle and she wanted to help Misaka break out of it to continue the healing process, so she asked, “So how did you end it? How did Touma get involved?”

Misaka took a sip of her tea to collect her thoughts. “You realize he and I have never really talked about this? I think he doesn’t like to dwell on the past once everyone has gotten the happy ending he wishes for all of us. I can only guess at parts of this based on what I know from the Sisters.”

Index nodded because that was so like Touma.

“What brought the whole situation to a head was the day Kamijou met Misaka 10032 at the usual Park. He made the error of thinking she was me, but quickly realized she wasn’t. Probably because of the unusual way the Sisters speak, or possibly because she wasn’t…well you know…” [Misaka made a little spark, sweat dropped, and blushed]

Index smiled and nodded.

“Well, 10032 had found a box with a lost black kitten in it. However, the kitten was scared of her because all of us give off static electricity and it scares cats. She got Kamijou to carry the kitten for her while she followed him around. Meanwhile, I was breaking into another facility, stealing some data, and getting ready to destroy said building. Kamijou stopped at some sort of store with 10032. He went inside and 10032 stayed outside with the kitten. Apparently another Misaka, Misaka 10031, had a death date across the street with Accelerator.”

Index gasped and her eyes got huge.

“So, while Kamijou was inside the store, 10032 set down the kitten and ran across the street I guess to try to watch or support 10031 while she shot it out with Accelerator. Meanwhile, the lab I was in had cameras recording Accelerator doing his disgusting perversions to 10031, culminating with him causing her organs to explode out of her body, all over the alley.” 

Index turned a distinct dark shade of green and Misaka, who had had to live through the experience did too.

“Apparently Kamijou came out of the store, didn’t see Misaka 10032, found the kitten, heard the gunshots, and did the Kamijou thing. He ran to the gunshots. He got there in time to find 10031’s body all over the alley and thought it was 10032. He became ill and then called Anti-Skill and went out to meet them. What he didn’t know is that the Sisters always clean up the crime scene, so that by the time Anti-Skill got there, the body was gone.”

“So, what happened? Was he arrested?”

“No, apparently they let him go. But then the Sisters revealed themselves to him for some reason in the back alleys after he left Anti-Skill. Maybe because of his kindness to 10032? He saw them carrying the body and they told him about the experiment. They also told him that they knew I was trying to stop it, but they didn’t think I was going to succeed on my own. Well, that was like waving a red flag to Kamijou and he came charging up to my dorm room, in the middle of the night.”

“He went to your room in the middle of the night?!”

“Yes, but I wasn’t there because I was out blowing up labs. However, my pervert…roommate, Kuroko, was there. Kuroko is…how do I explain her…very protective of me and very jealous of any time I spend with other people. She was suspicious when a boy that she knows I have chased around the city, shows up to try to get into my room at night. She brought him in and tried to find out if he knew where I was, while he was trying to do the same with her. Then the Dorm Mother came and Kuroko realized if she was caught in her pajamas with a boy in the room, she was doomed. So, she stuffed Kamijou under my bed and then met with the Dorm Mother outside the room.”

Misaka noticed that Index’s eyes seemed to be glaring and on fire.

“Touma was with a strange girl, in her pajamas, alone, in her room, in the night?” [Serious teeth grinding noises]

[Touma suddenly breaks out in a cold sweat in class. A feeling of impending doom sweeps over him. Those seated close to him hear him murmur, “Such misfortune!” as he nervously glances around.]

“While he was hiding under my bed, he found my papers I had hidden there from Kuroko that had most of the details about the experiments…including the date and time of the next murder.”

Misaka took a deep breath, held it, and then shakily let it out slowly. “Index, for their experiment to theoretically work, Accelerator needed to either kill me 125 times, or slaughter 20,000 of my Sisters and then kill me. I had found out that the Tree Diagram Super Computer Satellite had somehow been destroyed. With it gone, if I sabotaged their experiment in another way, they would not be able to rework the numbers to correct for the error. Since I knew where the next attack would be, I was going to go and substitute myself for Misaka 10032.”

Index nodded, wondering where Misaka was going with this.

Softly, “Index, I was only going to put up a token fight with Accelerator and then let him kill me.”

“WHAT?!” 

“My life to save almost 10,000 Sisters, it was a fair exchange for the 10,000 I killed. It would totally destroy their scientific project because if I died, and the super computer was down, they could not recalculate the project, “Misaka said. “And I would not have to see all those dead faces accusing me in my dreams anymore, “she added softly.

“So, what happened?” asked Index.

“The damned Idiot” answers Misaka simply. He found me on a bridge on the way to the railyard. We talked about the Sisters. He got mad and lectured me on not letting anyone help me with my problems. I got mad and screamed at him about being the same way. Then, the big Idiot figured out what I was planning; about letting myself be killed. And he got even more angry with me. And then he got so sad, and somehow that actually hurt me to see him sad.”

Index looked closely at Misaka and starts to wonder if Misaka actually ever thinks about herself at all. The fact that she is a lot like Touma, thinking of others first. Then she wondered if Misaka ever examined her feelings about Touma…

“Index, he told me he would stop me, he wouldn’t let me throw my life away. So, I told him I would shock him or even use my RailGun to remove him from my path. And he…he…heeeeeee…he wouldn’t even put up his right hand! He just spread out his arms and let me shock him! And I did!!! I shocked him so many times and he kept getting up again and again to stop me, and I shocked him worse and worse every time!!! Oh God, Index! You must think I’m a monster!” Misaka covered her face with her hands, she didn’t want to see Index’s reaction.

Actually, if she had been looking, she would have seen a tiny smile on Index’s face. “No, Misaka, that sounds exactly like that Baka. He would sacrifice himself just like that to save you from yourself. I told you I won’t judge, but you aren’t a monster. You were trying to do what you saw as the right thing in a situation that would drive a Saint mad.”

Misaka looked at Index’s face and again saw that she wasn’t being mocked. 

“So, what happened next?”

“We talked. Kamijou told me that the way to defeat those evil bast…scientists was not for me to die or to defeat the #1 Level 5, but for a Level 0 to defeat him. Namely Kamijou. We would go there, I would protect Misaka 10032 and then Kamijou and I would work together with Kamijou using his right hand to defeat Accelerator.”

“Was that the night with the weird storms, blackouts, explosions, and Anti-Skill telling everyone it was a rogue storm, and to stay inside?”

Misaka nodded. “Yes, it was a very close thing. We actually had to get all the Sisters involved as well, but in the end Kamijou triumphed over Accelerator and beat him. Shortly thereafter the experiment was ended, although the son of a bi…the guy who started it all escaped. Misaka 10032 almost lost an eye and Kamijou as usual was hurt and ended up with Dr Heaven Canceller. And I still see the bodies. And now you know.”

Misaka paused to drink some cider to rest her throat. “Index. I could have saved more. I could have started with 9982. She could have had a chance at a real life. I could have tried talking all of them out of it. There are nights that all I see is her smiling at me, blood pouring from her missing leg, clutching that stupid pin as he CRUSHES THE LIFE OUT HER!!! AND IT’S MY FAULT!”

She pauses for a second. Then, in a voice so soft it can hardly be heard, “There are days I just want to die. For the Sisters I killed, for what I did to my friends who I now know were crazed with worry about me, and for the horrible things I did to that brave Idiot. Days I know I deserve to die. Why am I even alive after they all died? They were so innocent; they never even had a chance to try life…”

Index wasn’t sure what to do. Misaka was obviously suffering greatly, even now. Index wasn’t sure she was up to the task of helping her heal herself, but she knew she had to try. “Misaka, have you talked to your Sisters since you and Touma saved them?”

“Yes.”

“Did they ever accuse you of hurting them or failing them or murdering them?”

“No, but they wouldn’t! They don’t really understand the concept.”

“But, how did they feel after that night? How did 10032 feel?”

“She…They…were grateful, in a way. They call me ‘Big Sister’ and they call Kamijou ‘Savior’.”

Index paused on hearing that. Then she continued, “Don’t you think that if anyone were to judge you to be a murderer, it would be your Sisters? Yet, it seems that they care for you and have no such thoughts about you at all. No, Misaka, you have no reason to have any guilt or any reason to think yourself a murderer. You ae no sociopath. You were a 14-year-old girl, a girl with a great power, I grant you, but a very your girl, thrust into a horrible situation, who, with the help of a good friend, SAVED 10,000 lives.”

“But…”

“No,” Index grabbed Misaka’s head and forced her gaze into Misaka’s eyes, “I forbid you these unworthy, despairing thoughts any more. Look into my eyes. See the truth there!” Index thundered.

Misaka couldn’t help herself, her eyes felt trapped by Index’s big, innocent green eyes. They seemed to swallow her up. She could not turn her head.

“Misaka, those are not your sins. They are the sins of the evil people who started this horrible project. Those deaths are not caused by you, you did not cause them. Listen to me, look instead to those beautiful Sisters of yours who are safe and free today. They are living their own lives because of your sacrifices. You made them happy. You freed them. You brought them joy! Do not look backward at what has been that cannot be changed; look forward to the Sisters you have now that you can cherish, hold, and help going forward!”

Index held onto her head for another few moments, searching for something in Misaka’s eyes. Then, she seemed satisfied with what she saw, because she gently released her head after patting it lightly.

Misaka sat all the way back, her mind in turmoil. Was it that easy? She closed her eyes for a moment, when she reopened them it looked like Index was praying! Index looked up at her and smiled. “I was giving thanks; I wasn’t sure I could reach you. How are you feeling?”

Misaka opened her mouth, then stopped to think. She actually felt better than she had in weeks. “Better,” she said.

“There is still one thing you need to do, I think,” Index said, “to help you finish your healing process. You need to talk to your friends and tell them the truth of what happened. You need to relieve them of their burden too.”

Misaka felt like she had been shot, but she realized that the little Nun was right again. She had poisoned all of her relationships with her lies, half-truths, evasions, and deceits and her friends deserved better. She needed to clear the air, even if it meant the loss of those friendships.

“Index, I will do that tomorrow. I will tell Kuroko tonight and meet the others tomorrow, much as we did today. Hopefully with less drama. Let me send the text now.”

As Misaka pulled out her phone, she noticed the time. She quickly texted Uihara and Saten. She asked Uihara to take Kuroko and herself off Judgement duty tomorrow. She got acknowledgments from both girls.

“Index, I can never thank you enough for everything today. It is getting a little late, but I would still love to please hear the story of how you and Kamijou met. I will send him a text telling him we are together and that I will treat both of you to dinner tonight. I would love for you to meet some of my friends tonight too. Would that be ok? Please?”

Index considered things for a few moments. She knew she wasn’t supposed to discuss things like that, but she and Misaka were now good friends and she knew she could trust her. Plus, food! And Misaka was looking at her with those big eyes that are hard to resist.

“OK, Misaka. Let him know and set a time for dinner and I’ll tell you the story.”

“Let me just send these texts really quickly…” Misaka sent out two texts, with the second one going to a certain boy…

…………………………………………………

As Touma’s Saturday class at A Certain High School ended, his cell phone buzzed with a message. Everyone was standing around, packing up and chatting. His petite teacher, Tsukuyomi Comoe, was chatting with the fierce PhysEd teacher and Anti-skill member, Yomikawa Aiho. The class was stunned when he shouted, “No! Such misfor…” and then his eyes rolled up in his head and for once, with no visible wounds, Kamijou fainted, throwing the class into an uproar! Comoe-sensei started crying and ran to him, assuming he had been attacked, while Yomikawa drew her pistol and ran to the window, looking for an attacker.  
Tsuchmikado Motoharu, arguably one of Touma’s best friends, casually sauntered over and picked up the fallen cell phone. Reading the message, he then shouted, “Calm down everyone, he wasn’t attacked. Yet. Kamijou is having Harem problems again. Listen to this message from Misaka, ‘Kamijou, had lunch and spent the afternoon talking with Index-san. We will meet you for dinner. We need to talk'.”  
You could hear a pin drop in the classroom as everyone knew which Misaka that was and had at one point or another seen or heard of Kamijou having his head bitten by Index. And then some unknown male voice whispered loud enough for everyone to hear, “That poor bastard.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK, it's 0100 in the world where I am. I've had a couple of trying days. Personal stuff I won't burden you with. Tough chapter. If you think the emotions here are fake, trust me, been there seen that. Survivor's guilt is a horrible thing. The howling? Been thru that with a friend. If anything, my description here is understated. I still get chills and it's been more than 30 years.
> 
> Stay tuned for the next chapters, might be a day or two but I hope you like them.
> 
> BTW, I've already written the ending. I have ADD, no not ADHD, I'm not hyperactive. Sometimes having the ending gives me a direction to write in. Doesn't mean there might not be an epilogue...


	6. Don't worry!

Hello folks! Don't worry, I haven't abandoned this story! I have ADD, as I have mentioned. I had another story pop into my tiny little brain and it won't stop coming out. My apologies [Deep bow] Things are also a little hectic in my personal life right now, but I hope to wrap up the other story in another day or two as I am having trouble even stopping writing to sleep.

If you click on my name, you can find it. It is called, "Sometimes Even Touma Can't Save the Smiles..." 

It has some combat, tragedy, character death, and is a LOT darker than this story, be forewarned...

Again, thank you for taking some of your time to read my writings. If you gave my a kudos, it is appreciated; if you wrote to me I appreciate that as well! I will restart within the next week at most.

Next chapter is underway. Real dot life is keeping me busy, I’m about 30% done with it. It’s a little slow because the othe story keeps fighting me as does the LARP I’m writing.

Seriously ADD...


	7. Confessions...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At long last, another chapter. I'm not entirely happy with it, but it works
> 
> As usual, not my anime, not my characters, just my fanfiction
> 
> It took awhile because I had to rewatch the early episodes to refresh what we laughingly call my memory

To recap the last chapter:

“Index, I can never thank you enough for everything today. It is getting a little late, but I would still love to please hear the story of how you and Kamijou met. I will send him a text telling him we are together and that I will treat both of you to dinner tonight. I would love for you to meet some of my friends tonight too. Would that be ok? Please?”

Index considered things for a few moments. She knew she wasn’t supposed to discuss things like that, but she and Misaka were now good friends and she knew she could trust her. Plus, food! And Misaka was looking at her with those big eyes that are hard to resist.

“OK, Misaka. Let him know and set a time for dinner and I’ll tell you the story.”

“Let me just send these texts really quickly…” Misaka sent out two texts, with the second one going to a certain boy…

“Misaka, you could say that, like many of the people he knows, I just fell into Touma’s life. Literally. You need to know some of my background. Now, as you have trusted me to keep your secrets, I will trust you to please keep mine. What I am about to tell you is not known to many and just by knowing it, your life can be endangered if certain people find out you know.”

“What’s a few more enemies?” Misaka responded. “I promise to keep your secrets to my grave.”

“Thank you,” replied Index. “As I told you before, my name is Index Librorum Prohibitorum…”

Misaka interrupted her, “I’m sorry, but is that your real name?”

Index blushed. It was her turn to blush and whisper. “I honestly do not know. My memories have been tampered with on orders of the church for many years by two of the Church’s Magicians. So, for all intents, my name is Index.” 

“Tampered with?! That’s horrible! It sounds like something a certain Level 5 I know would do.” Misaka actually started growling under her breath.

“Misaka, let me tell you my story to clarify things a little. It all begins when I was younger. Somehow, I became a ward of the Church. It became evident that I had an ability: I remember everything I see. Perfectly. You would call it ‘Photographic Memory’. The Church decided to take advantage of this by having me memorize all of the prohibited magical grimoires in the world, to protect anyone else from reading them.”

“How many books as that, Index?”

“103,000 books.”

Misaka choked. “Ha, ha, how many?”

“All 103,000 of them. That is the entire number of banned or forbidden grimoires in the world and I needed to take them in and hide them inside myself. I travelled the world, memorizing them, I’ve been told, but I have no memory of this. My memories only start from when I arrived in Japan a few months ago. Everything else is gone.”

“How horrible!” exclaimed Misaka. “Index, if I may ask, how old are you to have done so much?”

“I.. I’m not sure Misaka. But I think I’m around 15 years of age, based on what some of the Magicians have said. I truly do not know. [Embarrassedly] I’m not very womanly in figure, so it’s hard to say…”

Misaka was shocked, she would have thought, based on her actions today, that Index was much older since she spoke so maturely and she told Index so.

“That is very kind of you, but Touma tells me all the time what a child I am since I know nothing about the modern world; he makes fun of me, refuses to feed me so that I can grow bigger, and is always lusting after women with bigger…” [Index gestures at her chest area]

[Both girls growl. Kamijou, who had just regained consciousness and was being helped to his feet in his classroom, suddenly felt extremely dizzy and faint.]

“So,” Index continues her tale, “I found myself in Japan, with no memories, being chased by two scary people around Tokyo. Somehow, I got into Academy City and I was jumping from rooftop to rooftop in the middle of the night to try to escape them. I missed my jump and fell. The next morning, I woke up and I was hanging from the railing of the balcony of an apartment. I was weak from hunger as I hadn’t eaten in a day or more and could barely move. Suddenly the door of the balcony opened and out came this sleepy looking boy with spikey hair, yawning, carrying a futon. It looked like he was just going to throw it over me, when he finally realized I was there.”

Misaka thinks to herself, “Yup, he has no situational awareness.”

“So, I looked at him and told him I was hungry. He offered me an old sandwich that he had. Unfortunately, I was so hungry that I actually took the whole sandwich and his hand in my mouth and then bit down.” Index said with embarrassment.

“Let me guess,” said Misaka, “Such misfortune!” imitating Kamijou’s voice.

“So,” Index continued, “He brought me into his dorm room and fed me some more, which was nice. But we really didn’t get along at first. He didn’t believe in Magic and thought I was a crazy person. Since I can’t do spells alone, I couldn’t prove it to him. So, I got a knife and told him to stab me to prove my robes were magic and would protect me!”

“I can imagine the look on his face!” said Misaka, “What did he do?”

“He refused to even touch the knife. Then he told me about his right hand and that it could even cancel God’ miracles. So, we started arguing, like you and he argue and he got mad and put his right hand on my robes. See, my robes didn’t always have big pins holding them up. What happened was his right hand cancelled my Magical protection and the robes came off me.”

“Oh, no!” cried Misaka, “Did he faint?”

“No, worse!” cried an embarrassed Index, blushing, “HE STARED!!”

“He. Stared. At. A. Naked. Nun. That. He. STRIPPED!” growled Misaka, lightening snapping around her head.

[Kamijou’s life just flashed before his eyes]

“Well, he did then throw a blanket over me just before I started biting him. A lot. I managed to repair my robes with the pins you see and restore my Church.”

“He. Stared. At. A. Naked. Nun. That. He. STRIPPED!”, Misaka was not letting that one go. 

{Kamijou started thinking about making out his Last Will & Testament, for some reason]

“Misaka, I already forgave him. It was an accident. Be at peace. So, I told him I was being pursued by two Magicians, he offered to let me stay at his dorm, but I told him it was too much danger and I walked out of his life.”

“What?!”

“Yes, I had only met him; it was my first day in Academy City. He was very naïve and I didn’t want him hurt by the two Magicians chasing me, so I left. Touma went to school and had to stay late to make up his school work. I was ambushed and barely escaped with my life. I realized I had left my habit at the boy’s apartment and they would track it to him. Somehow, I made my way back to the only place I felt safe, which was the door of the kind boy, so I could get my habit and make it safe for him., But I collapsed. When he got home, I was lying on front of his door, being attacked by cleaning robots trying to cleanup my blood.”

“Oh!” gasped Misaka.

“Yes, I was barely conscious. Then one of the Mages who had been following me came. He specializes in fire magic and Touma fought him. The mage conjured a giant Fire Elemental, but Touma was able to outsmart Stiyl Magnus and destroy the Elemental after a long battle. Touma then attacked Stiyl and grabbed me and carried me away. But his dorm blew up.”

“I know, Kuroko and I saw it, although we didn’t know it was his at the time. Where did you go?”

“I was dying, Misaka. Kamijou took me to his favorite teacher’s apartment. It was the only safe place he could think of. I have several autonomic spells that take over if I am in mortal danger or dying. One of them is John’s Pen. I had to send Touma away so that the Healing Spell could be cast, without his right hand interfering. His teacher, Comoe-sensei, actually cast the spell with me to heal the wounds. We summoned the spirit of an angel together. I’m not sure she still believes it.”

Eyes large, Misaka wondered, “You were saved by an angel?”

“Well, a facsimile thereof, summoned…it’s complicated. I then spent the night sleeping to recover my energy at his Sensei’s apartment. The next day I told Touma my whole story, as much as I remembered. And he, he got mad at me, and you know he never gets mad! But he was mad because I hid my story from him because I thought it would scare him away and I liked him…and I wanted to stay with him…”

Misaka jumped and then gave Index a knowing look.

“But you know Touma, it didn’t scare him away, it made him mad that I thought him shallow, and it made him more determined to protect me from the, as he saw it, “two evil Sorcerers” chasing me. He fought a sword master, Kanzaki Kaori for me and received injuries that left him unconscious for three days. She told him that is I did not receive another memory wipe, I would die because my brain would be too full of memories for me to live. As it turns out, the she and the fire user were actually old friends of mine who had been lied to by the Church. Kamijou figured it out.”

“Sometimes he is scary smart,” said Misaka.

“More than you know, I think,” said Index.

Continuing on, Index said, “Anyhow, the Sorcerers found us at his teacher’s apartment and came to do the spell. I was dying, not because my memory was too full, but because of a Spell Curse the Church had placed on me. They were afraid of my taking the books and using them myself so they lied to everyone I knew in order to control me. Kamijou figured it out and started looking for the Spell Curse while Stiyl and Kanzaki gave him time to say goodbye to me. At the last moment he found that the spell was hiding inside my mouth, so he slid the fingers of his right hand inside my mouth and negated the spell.”

Misaka said, “Oh!” blushing, as her eyes got big thinking of the intimacy of such an action.

“From what I’m told, this triggered the automatic defenses the Church implanted in my subconscious and I started attacking Touma with a very vicious spell. He apparently got the other two mages to help him and eventually used his right hand to shut down the attack. But he ended up in the hospital…and he hasn’t been the same. Dr Heaven Canceller says part of his brain was destroyed and Touma acts so strange sometimes. Touma says it didn’t affect his memories, but I’m worried.’

“Index, that would explain a lot. I ran into Touma after the fire at his dorm and he acted like he didn’t know who I was and then later laughed it off! That was the same time I met Misaka 9982 for the last time.”

“Misaka, do you think he’s faking his memories so we won’t worry about him?”

“I wouldn’t put it past that Baka.”

“Touma saved me again when I was kidnapped by another rogue sorcerer who wanted to transfer my mind into a vampire and saved another girl at the same time. He had his right arm cut off fighting for me and had to have it sewed back on by Heaven Canceller.”

“No!” exclaimed Misaka.

“It seems like he has been badly injured fighting for both us,“ replied Index, sighing.

“Yes,” sighed Misaka.

They both sat quietly with their thoughts for a few minutes.

After a while, Index leaned forward and directed her piercing eyes at Misaka again. “Misaka, tell me true. You are very much in love with Touma, are you not?” Index asked softly.

Misaka, startled, gathered herself up to make one of her vehement denials, but, found that, with Index, she couldn’t. She sat still, very still, for a moment, blushed, and said simply “Yes, I think I am.”

But then Misaka leaned forward and met Index’s gaze firmly and said equally softly, “But, you need to admit, at least to yourself Index, that you are equally very much in love with him.”

Index was stunned that Misaka was able to read her so well. She teared up. “I am, a Nun should not really fall in love, but I have!”

This time it was Misaka’s turn to come over, put her arms around the little Nun and console her. Index wasn’t really crying, just stunned by her self-realization and overwhelmed by her emotions.

“Oh Misaka, how can I still live with him if I have these feelings? He is so courteous; he sleeps in the bathtub and leaves me his bed, but still! If I have feelings for him, I should not be there where temptation lies!” And she blushed mightily.

“Have you nowhere else to go, Index?” asked Misaka.

“No,” answered Index, “He is my assigned protector by Necessarius, if I leave his protection, they would take me back to London, probably under lock and key and I would never see him again!!!”

“Oh no,” said Misaka, “I don’t want that to happen to you! Do you have to LIVE with him to be considered under his protection?”

“Nooooo…but who would cook for me or get food for me? I have no money or job!”

“The church doesn’t provide you with any money or a stipend? How do they expect you to survive on your own out in the world?”

Silence. “I think that is how they want to control me. If I have no money, then I have to return to England and be kept under their lock and key,” said Index with a trembling voice.

“There has to be something we can do! Why can’t you go to school here?” asked Misaka.

“I’m not here legally,” answered Index, “Remember I came here to escape the to sorcerers in the middle of the night. The Church will never help make me legal; it’s another way they can control me.”

“It’s not fair,” said Misaka. “I understand how you feel and that it would be awkward to be around him in such close quarters, but it’s not fair to make you move to England either. There has to be something we can do!”

They both sat in an awkward silence.

Index looked at Misaka and with her heart breaking said, “There is only one thing to do: I must give up any claim to Touma’s heart…and…and…leave for England. You deserve to be happy with Touma and I can just be happy with being a Sister of the Ch…CH…Church of Nec…” She couldn’t continue, but she got up and ran to the door to try to flee.

Startled by all this, Misaka was not about to let Index get away so she quickly used her powers and magnetized the door shut so that not even the world’s strongest man could open it.

Misaka got up, stalked over to the door, and spun the little Nun around and looked her in the eyes. “Don’t you dare run away like that!” she shouted, pulling Index back to the sofa and pushing her down.

“How dare you think of throwing away your happiness like that? Do you think I could live the rest of my life at peace knowing that you were in misery?! After all you have done to save me today? I would rather die than let that happen!” declared Misaka, sparks flashing from her eyebrows. “Index, you sometimes come across as a bratty little girl, sometimes as the wisest women I know, but *NEVER* as a coward or quitter!!”

Index shivered. She had never had someone speak so forcefully to her before [That she remembered].

The two girls sat facing each other on the sofa. Misaka reached over and picked up Index’s hands in hers and looked Index in her eyes and spoke softly: “Index, we both love the same boy. Now, he is a Baka and is probably oblivious, but we will both tell him tonight. Together. He does not need to choose between us tonight or any time soon, we are all young and have time to enjoy our youth. Who knows, maybe [GULP] he has another he prefers. But I’ll be damned if I will just become the default. [Waving her arms at Index’s robes] Does your Church say you cannot eventually marry?”

“Noooooo…”

“Then there is no problem for you to date. If you are feeling particularly Masochistic, I can ask my roommate, Kuroko to act as your Virtue Protector too. [muttering] Although, you might regret that… Meanwhile, after we speak with Kamijou tonight, you will come back to my dorm and spend the night with Kuroko and myself. I will need your help dealing with her anyhow. Then tomorrow, I will make my “confession” to my friends and I would like you to please be there to help me in case I have problems again. Maybe all of us can come up with a plan to help you become legal to deal with your living situation.”

Index was silent; she was overwhelmed at everything Misaka had just said. Could she just confess her love to Touma? She was terrified of his rejection, the lose of his friendship and companionship. The way he always made her feel safe…

Misaka watched the thoughts crossing Index’s face. “Index, he will never reject your friendship! Knowing him, if he were to eventually reject either or both of our love, he would do so in a “I can’t believe anyone would love someone as unlucky as me, thanks anyhow” manner, without rejecting the deep friendship lying beneath.”

Index looked at Misaka and said, “Looks like I am not the only wise person here today.” Making Misaka blush again.

Misaka looked at Index and asked, “Are we ready to go beard the dragon?”

“Um…uh, huh.”

“Let me send a text…” Misaka actually sent three…

First text: “Have all preparations been made? We are underway and will be there in 7 mins.”

Second Text: “Can’t wait to see You, meet at our usual spot. Don’t keep us ladies waiting! You don’t want to have ”Such Misfortune!”

Third Text: “Should be back by Curfew. Will have overnight guest. Please be on your best behavior!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm working on the next chapter for this story already. I left a chapter ending on my other story so will not be posting there for a day or two.
> 
> "Misaka Misaka says you are still a BIG MEANIE! How could you end that other chapter like that Misaka Misaka cries?!"


	8. A Night to Remember

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters in one day. And y'all thought I forgot this story. Today it took over my brain and I couldn't stop writing.
> 
> As usual: not my anime, not my characters, just my fanfiction
> 
> Oh yeah, little bit of a twist at the end... heh heh heh

Rolling time back a little…

Kamijou, once he regained his senses, reread the text message one more time. He then begged his classmates to hide him, but they all laughed at him. Next, he appealed to his favorite teacher, Komoe-sensei, who told him, “This will be a good learning experience for you, Kamijou!”

Finally, out of desperation, he approached the fierce PhysEd instructor/Anti-Skill Officer, Yomikawa Aiho, and begged to be placed into Protective Custody. She raised one eyebrow and just chuckled at him. He asked if he could be arrested. She replied that if he could knock her down, she would gladly arrest him. She then cracked her knuckles and grinned at him.

Kamijou realized that maybe Misaka and Index wouldn’t be that bad…

He made it back to his dorm apartment, went inside, and collapsed on his, well really, Index’s bed, for a moment to gather his thoughts. How bad could it be, really. The two of them hadn’t shown up at his school to attack him in class.

Biribiri hadn’t lain in wait outside the school gates and called down giant bolts of lightning from the heavens.

There were no teeth marks on his skull…yet…

Wait, Index got fed! She will be in a good mood! They probably talked about happy things like food, and things they like to eat, and how the fridge is always empty…

No! Think positively! They might have talked about girl things! Like clothes, and fashion, and how he made fun of Biribiri wearing shorts under her uniform…and how he destroyed Index’s clothes…and how he called them both flat-chested…

Kamijou started to hyperventilate.

Think positive! Index got fed and was getting another meal and Kamijou didn’t have to pay! The little Black Hole might actually be satisfied for a few hours!

OK, what kind of restaurant might they be going to? Not too fancy, Biribiri liked diner type places. So, he wouldn’t need his fancy suit, but he would like to look better than just a T-shirt and jeans. Kamijou took a shower and dressed in dress pants, a nice shirt, and a casual jacket and thought it looked good. He then sat down and actually worked on his homework in peace and quiet, waiting for the call or text to go meet the girls.

When the text came, the tone actually startled him. It had been a while since he could just do his home work without disturbance. It was almost unnatural. He kind of missed having Index around, asking for food or watching shopping channels on TV.

“Can’t wait to see You, meet at our usual spot. Don’t keep us ladies waiting! You don’t want to have: ”Such Misfortune!”

That did not sound too bad… like they were in a bad mood… Kamijou packed up his homework into his schoolbag and put it away, grabbed his keys and set off. He knew what Misaka meant: the park, by the vending machine.

Index and Misaka walked quietly together, not needing to speak after a long afternoon of confessions and revelations. The two of them were at peace, both with themselves and each other. While they might be rivals, it was not a bitter one, but a mutually supportive one, based on respect and even love for the other person. They knew the greatest challenge was dealing with the totally clueless individual they were about to meet and trying to get him to understand.

As they entered the part, Index suddenly stopped and looked at Misaka. 

“Misaka, this park and the area around it are empty as if some Sorcerer has placed wards. We could be in danger!”

Misaka smiled at Index and said, “Not tonight Index. I called in some favors and the only wards here are placed by my friends. For the next thirty minutes all traffic will be diverted from here and all security cameras will show the previous thirty minutes of footage so we can have some privacy.”

“Really? Why?”

“It’s a surprise!”

Misaka and Index continued walking and arrived at the much-abused vending machine. A minute later Kamijou joined them.

“Touma!” cried Index in happiness, followed by, “You left me with no food.”

Touma looked nervous.

“Index, that led us to have an interesting afternoon that we would never have had otherwise, so it was GOOD luck that he left no food today. Right?”

“I’m sorry, Misaka, you are right.”

“So, you spent the afternoon together?”

“Yes, Kamijou, and we will talk about it with you later, but I have a surprise for Index.” Misaka raises her voice: “Sisters?”

Kamijou looks startled but Index claps her hands with joy as she looks around. Coming in from all different parts of the park, by ones and twos, and then eventually more are dozens and dozens of girls, wearing Tokiwadai uniforms and green, glowing goggles. All making their way towards Misaka, Index, and Kamijou. For Index, their silence was a little eerie. When she looked around, it was obvious the park was full with hundreds, if not thousands of Misakas.

One Misaka stepped forward; tis one was wearing a little necklace, unlike the rest. Misaka looked at her and said, “Thank you Misaka Imouto for making the arrangements and asking all the Sisters to gather here tonight, both in person and via the link.”

“Misaka 10032 is glad to help Big Sister in her request, but Misaka 10032 is curious why Big Sister requested so many Misakas to come to the park although all Misakas are happy to see Big Sister and Savior Misaka enquires.”

“Sisters, I want to introduce to you someone that is very special and important to Savior and myself. This is Index. She is new to this city and has many enemies. Savior and I are her protectors. I would like to as all of you to please act as her protectors as well.”

Kamijou and Index jumped and looked at each other. Index had just gained almost 10,000 new protectors. They could not believe what Misaka had just done for Index.

Misaka continued: “Those who might wish her harm could be level 0, they could be any level of Esper, or they could be people who wield strange, Esper like powers. Regardless, please contact myself and the Savior and act to the best of your abilities to help defend our friend Index. This would mean a lot to Savior and myself.”

“Misaka 10032 asks for all Misakas how do you wish us to proceed.”

“First, if at all possible, simply remove Index from the danger in the quickest and safest way possible. After that, use your discretion and any force necessary to get her to safety and/or save her life. Any other questions? I thank you all! Would any Sister like to come meet Index personally?”

Well, it seemed that quite a few Misakas were curious enough to want to meet the new member of the family, so they came up and introduced themselves briefly. Some were a little shy, some asked questions about her clothes, where she tended to go, etc. It seemed like some of it was intel gathering.

After about a half an hour, it was over. The Sisters disappeared as silently as they had appeared. Index sat down on the bench abruptly. Kamijou and Misaka sat down too.

“It is something to see them all at once like that, isn’t it,” said Misaka.

“It does take your breath away,” answered Index, “but they are all so sweet, and rather innocent.”

“They are and they aren’t,” replied Kamijou, “It’s hard to forget that they were bred and trained for combat from birth. Almost like someone I could mention” he said lightly, nudging Misaka with his elbow.

She reached over with her finger and gave him the lightest little zap, just slightly more than static electricity. Index giggled.

Suddenly serious, Kamijou leaned forward and looked at Misaka. “Why did you do that, Biribiri? Why did you ask the Sisters to help protect Index?”

Misaka looked at Index and they both nodded.

“No more secrets, Kamijou. Index and I had a long talk this after noon and really bared our souls to each other. I told her things about myself that I have never told anyone before, and she did the same. I’m done with lying about what I did, what I saw, with my Sisters. I finally let it out and am finally at peace with myself. I did frighten poor Index who thought she was going to have to do an exorcism…”

Index laughed nervously… 

“But there are still somethings that are unsettled for both of us that we need to talk about with you. Since we both know that I am willing to say things that should be left unsaid, I will go first.”

“Kamijou, why won’t you admit that most of your memory is gone and you have been faking it for a while?”

While he didn’t know what Misaka was going to say, that was not what he was expecting. 

“We compared notes and it became obvious something was wrong. You didn’t remember me or my powers; you were shocked to see Kuroko teleport; for goodness’s sake, you forgot how hungry Index gets!”

Busted! But neither girl looked like they were going to attack. They looked…sympathetic and supportive.

“I…I…can’t remember anything about my life from before I woke up in the hospital after freeing Index from her Church. Nothing. Not my family, my childhood, nothing. It’s all gone.”

“Touma!”

“Kamijou!”

He found himself being hug attacked by two crying girls. He turned red.

“No, stop really. Stop. Stiyl told me I broke Index’s curse and saved her life so it was worth it to bring a smile to her face. I would do it again.

They both stared at him.

“Yup, Index, that sums him up. OK, hero, let’s go get some dinner! I know Index will be hungry by now and I heard there’s a new, All You Can Eat Curry place close by we can try!”

“All…all you can eat! Yay!” cried Index.

The restaurant was a quick five-minute walk away. Misaka had a quiet word with the hostess and got them a private room at the back. Index order three large spicy curry bowls to start while everyone else settled on just one. Not much was said during the meal, as everyone enjoyed the food, especially Index.

After things had slowed down and even Index was getting satisfied, Misaka poured more tea for everyone and settled back a little. “Kamijou, you asked me why I got my Sisters involved with Index. I think Index helped save my life, or at least my sanity today. And she told me her story of what she’s had to go through and how people are always going to be after her and that the Church had assigned you as her sole protector.”

Kamijou nodded.

“Kamijou, you need to listen to both of us now without speaking. It’s very important that you don’t speak but listen carefully to Index and myself. There’s some things you need to know from both of us. From me: One, I love Index. As a person. She helped me today when I didn’t even know I needed it or could be helped and, like you, I will do anything to protect her. And two…”

Misaka looked at Index again, and Index nodded, so Misaka looked at Kamijou to make her point, “She helped me realize that I am totally in love with you, and have been for a while. Not a crush, love. You mean the world to me and I can’t imagine living in a world without you. Now, let Index speak.”

Kamijou felt like he was at a tennis match.

“Touma, even though you sometimes scare me with how reckless you are with your safety, I am also totally in love with you and probably have been for a while. I don’t know what to do, because, as a Nun, I don’t think I can trust myself to share a room with you while I feel this way.” Index burst into tears. Misaka moved over to hug her and hold her.

“Kamijou, we don’t want an answer from you tonight, tomorrow, or even next week. We realize we just shocked you with these sudden declarations. We even shocked ourselves. Now you know part of the reason why I asked the Sisters to assist in protecting Index. Knowing the Sisters, they already have set up an overwatch and schedule. Index will not have more dutiful protectors other than yourself and me.”

Kamijou just looked at the two girls with big eyes.

“Touma, we both love you very much, but will understand if you have someone else you love instead. We are also willing to share time with you and let you take time to make up your mind between us. As Misaka said to me earlier: “we are all young and have time to enjoy our youth” so don’t think you must make any sudden choices.”

“For tonight, Kamijou, Index will spend the night with me in my dorm. We are meeting with my friends tomorrow where I am going to apologize for all the harm I did to my relationship with them and no more secrets there either. I asked Index to come with me, because, truth be told, I’m still a little raw. I also want to brainstorm with them to see if we can’t figure out a way to get Index legal here so we all don’t have to worry about her being forced back to England.”

Kamijou nodded, his brain was still in shock over the night’s events.

At this point everyone was done, so Misaka paid, as the host of the dinner and they all walked outside. Kamijou saw a flicker of a brown uniform out of the corner of his eye. 

He offered to walk the girls back to the dorm, but Misaka and Index declined, so Kamijou headed back to his dorm and the girls headed off to Misaka’s. 

On a whim, Misaka linked her arm through Index’s and said, “Well, that went better than expected. He didn’t faint, get a nosebleed, or tell us no!”

Index laughed, “Yes, I guess it could have been worse.”

“OK, so we will go up to my room, you can have a nice shower or bath, whichever you like. I have a spare set of pajamas for you, though they might be a little long. My roommate will try to offer you her nightgowns, but they are not Nun suitable, if you know what I mean…she is a little pervert…”

“Where will I sleep?” asked Index.

“Oh, you’ll take my bed,” replied Misaka, “I have a very comfortable spare futon I will use.”

“Are you sure? I don’t want to see you sleeping in the bathtub!”

Misaka laughed, “Don’t worry, I won’t!”

As Misaka entered her dorm room with Index, actually on time for curfew, her roommate, Kuroko Shirai, was already there. She had apparently already prepared for bed and was brushing out her hair. Kuroko saw that the love of her life was there and was about to give her usual over the top greeting, but sensed that something was a little different with her Sissy. So, with great restraint, she merely said, “Sissy! Hi! Did you have a nice day off? Who is this?”

“I had a very…full day. This is my friend Index, she is a Nun, she needed a place to stay for the night, so I offered to let her stay with us. I’m sorry for the short notice. Index this is my good friend Kuroko Shirai, she is my protector.”

“My name is Index; I am so pleased to meet you!”

Kuroko was a little (ok, a lot) jealous, but still polite, “Very nice to meet you too.”

Misaka rummaged around in her closet and then handled a bundle to Index. “OK, here is a towel, pajamas, slippers, and some hangers. You can leave your robes hanging in there tonight, if you like.” She pulled out the spare futon too.

“Thank you Misaka. I’m just going to take a quick shower!” and Index disappeared into the bathroom.

Kuroko’s jealousy grew. Here Sissy had spent a day with this “Nun” while Kuroko was chained to her desk at Judgement.

“Sissy, were you on a date with Index tonight?” asked Kuroko with a sweet voice.

Misaka realizing what was going on, decided to play along, by downplaying it.

“Oh, I don’t know if you could call it a date…we just had lunch and dinner together and spent the afternoon talking…”

Out of the corner of her eyes she could see Kuroko’s eyes bulging, her hair, normally well controlled, had suddenly burst out into a seething cloud around her head. Faint growling noises came from her side of the room.

The bathroom door burst open and out popped Index, she had to really roll up the pants legs and sleeves of the pajamas to get them to fit. She was giggling. “These look like Dr. Heaven Canceller!” she said, pointing at the Gekotas on the pajamas.

“I know,” snickered Misaka, “I think that too! Come on over here,” she said, pulling down the covers on her bed. Index hopped in and Misaka pulled them up.

“Sleep well Index,” said Misaka, and turned off the bedside and overhead light. Index yawned and was snoring softly within seconds.

“Sissy! What’s going on?” Kuroko asked softly.

“Let me shower and change, please, and we can talk a little.” And with that, Misaka went into the en-suite and closed the door.

Kuroko was worried that her Onee-chan was back doing sneaky things without telling her friends and hurting herself. She was glad she came back early, even if it was with someone else. She could hear the shower and what almost sounded like…humming?

Kuroko laid down on her bed and rested. She didn’t have to wait for long before the door opened and Misaka came back into the main room, wearing her favorite Gekota pajamas. Then, something strange happened. Misaka came over to Kuroko’s bed and stood there for a moment, looking at her.

“Can I sit here for a moment next to you, please?” Misaka asked quietly.

Kuroko couldn’t have been more shocked than if she had just been jolted by one of her Sissy’s usual blasts. Worried, she patted the bed and answered, “Sure.”

Misaka sat down next to her, with her head lowered and holding her hands in her lap. It seemed to Kuroko like she wasn’t even breathing. Something was wrong, very wrong. Was Onee-chan going to leave her? Was she dying?! Was that why she was with a Nun all day???

Suddenly, Misaka took a small, shuddering breath and without looking at the smaller girl she started speaking very slowly and softly; Kuroko almost had to strain to hear. “I had a very good day today. But it was also a very hard day. I made a new friend who helped me; she saved me, Kuroko. I was still in a bad place, even though I wasn’t showing it. But she showed me the way out. But on the way I learned some things. Too much to talk about tonight. But tomorrow you, Uihara, Saten, and I are going to get together and talk for a long while and I promise you that after that, there will be no more secrets.”

Kuroko’s face showed her shock: she had no idea her Sissy was suffering like this. She knew about the bad dreams, having heard them enough at night, but this was new! But who was this friend? What happened? She started to sit up. At the same time Misaka slid off of her bed to the floor and onto her knees. As Kuroko turned towards her, Misaka was on her knees facing her, head bowed, cheeks red.

Then, something unprecedented happened. “Kimi-chan,” she whispered.

Kuroko’s heart stopped. She couldn’t breathe.

“Kimi-chan, I don’t deserve it and I don’t expect it, but please say you will forgive me. You have always and unflinchingly been there for me when I needed you, whether I wanted you to be there or not and I have treated you despicably! I have been the most disgusting type of fair-weather friend and I am surprised that you even still stand to be around me. You are my protector, my sounding board, and my conscience. Please know that I despise myself for the way I have treated you recently. I don’t deserve you. More importantly, you don’t deserve to be treated so horribly by me.”

Misaka reached up and took Kuroko’s hands in hers and then lowered her head even further. “I know, Kimi-chan, that you…love me…in a way that I don’t think I can reciprocate. But, Kimi-chan, I want you to know that I do truly love you as my dearest friend. With all my heart.”

Silence filled the room. Misaka continued to look down at the floor. Kuroko looked even more stunned than before. First her Sissy, her Senpai, her Love gives her the most heartfelt and heart-breaking apology she has ever heard. Then, Misaka admits that she loves her too, even if it’s not quite the same? It was too much for her. Her tough outer shell fractured, the tears started falling, slowly and silently at first, until she could not contain them. For the first time, Misaka heard real, not fake sobs, coming from her roommate and friend.

Misaka looked up in time to catch Kuroko. She was not being attacked, but being hugged. Kuroko buried her head between Misaka’s neck and shoulder, crying. Both girls had their arms around each other’s backs.

“Sissy, Sissy, never can I imagine not being your friend! Never could I hate you! You are my best friend; I love you; there is nothing to forgive!”

Misaka held the crying girl until she calmed down and the tears drained away.

“Listen, tomorrow is Sunday and I already texted the others to meet us so I can apologize to everyone else and explain why I’ve been acting so strangely. Uihara already took you both off duty for tomorrow. So we can have the whole day together. But can I ask you for a strange favor?”

“Sure, Onee-chan, what is it?”

Misaka blushed. “I think my nightmares are over, but, just this once, could I sleep with you in your bed? Just to sleep? I am still a little scared and I know you will help keep me safe tonight.”

Kuroko answered by lifting the covers, sliding underneath, and moving over to the side closest to the wall. She then held them up so there was room for Misaka. Misaka turned off the lights and gingerly slid under the covers. Kuroko laid on her side facing the wall, trying not to do anything that could be misinterpreted as an attack or that would frighten Misaka. After a few minutes she heard a deep sigh from Misaka and her breathing became slow and regular. She was asleep. 

And then Kuroko thought she was dreaming: Misaka moved a little and her arms came around Kuroko and drew her in, hugging her closely. Misaka sighed happily, clutching her best friend tightly, and was dead to the world. 

Shortly after that, so was Kuroko.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I had to make up for what I did you y'all over at the other story...


	9. Let It All Hang Out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to Label this Chapter as MATURE. Personally I think Teens can handle it just fine, Thank you. I have confidence, but anyhow. No, there's no sex. Just a lot of deep thinking.
> 
> As always, not my anime, not my characters, just my fanfiction.
> 
> This is, for a large part, my attempt to get into what some characters' thought processes might be. It's my take, I might be wrong. Feel free to tell me so, constructively, I'm a big boy, I can learn from criticism. Leave calling me a doo-doo head to Misaka Misaka. LOL

Misaka woke up the next morning feeling like a new person. She felt like she had enjoyed the best sleep in years. But she was also confused. She knew she was in her dorm room, but this wasn’t her bed. Then she remembered the previous night. She opened her eyes more fully. She was in bed with Kuroko, but for once nothing…lewd was happening. 

Actually, Kuroko was curled in a little ball, like a kitten and being held tightly by Misaka’s arms! Kuroko’s hands were clasped together under her chin and she had a soft, sweet look on her face, like she didn’t have a care in the world. Misaka had apparently gathered the Teleporter in her arms in her sleep and pulled her close to her chest, like a Gekota plushie.

Behind Misaka, in her bed, she could hear the soft snores of Index, as she slept peacefully. Misaka took the quiet time to carefully gather her thoughts; it had been a difficult, eventful, introspective twenty-four hours. She had finally started to come to terms with herself and her misery and guilt over the deaths of so many of her Sisters. She knew it would be a work in progress, but the dam was broken, and, with Index’s help, her sanity was safe…or safer.

Also, she had come to terms with her feelings for Kamijou. She knew now that she truly loved him; not as a “silly schoolgirl crush” but as a real love based on understanding and trust. But, how did he feel? Would he accept her love? Could he accept the love of a little Middle School girl like her, all flat-chested and tomboyish? Someone who wears shorts under her uniform skirt?

Then there was her new friend, Index. Index Librorum Prohibitorum, the only person she has ever trusted her whole story to, so far. She owes Index more than she can ever repay, that s why she asked her Sisters to help defend Index. Misaka knows that, like Kamijou, she too will fight to the death to protect Index-san. Index may be her rival for Kamijou, but she feels no jealousy or anger; she wants them both to succeed, odd as that may seem.

Additionally, she feels a love for Index too. She, thinks about if for a while. She can’t…quantify the love in her head, can’t define it really. She’s not sure if it is as a friend. As a sibling. As a… Misaka blushes furiously!

Kuroko murmurs a little in her sleep and then does a kind of wriggling, instinctive motion trying to get closer to the warmth of Misaka’s body. Misaka sighed silently and held Kuroko more firmly. Kuroko gave off a happy sigh in her sleep and settled back down.

Oh, Kuroko, her lewd, perverted acting roommate. She was constantly, publicly declaring her love for Misaka, trying to shower with her, grab her…intimately. Many is the time Misaka would wake up and find Kuroko asleep in her bed; not necessarily lewdly, but apparently just for comfort, like Misaka had asked for last night.

Misaka told her the truth last night, she really did not know how she felt about that, if she could reciprocate in any way Kuroko’s feelings. She never wanted to lead the little teleporting nemesis on by making her think Misaka was interested, as that was not fair. 

Misaka had looked in the library and had, embarrassingly, asked her Mother about Kuroko. Her mother and the books said that it was normal; that girls Kuroko and her age were prone to have feelings for each other; that they might “grow out of it” or it may become their true sexuality.

Her Mother had even asked if she and Kuroko were “active”, which got her to shriek and hang up the phone abruptly! She couldn’t even face Kuroko for hours after the call! She blushed now, just thinking about it.

Can you love more than one person? Can you love them “that way”? Will Kamijou be willing to try dating both Index and herself? Will he…reject them both because they are too…flat and he likes BIG chests? He certainly stared at her Mother’s chest constantly when he met her! What if he hates her because of all the times she tried to electrocute him?

Misaka’s head was dancing. What to do about her feelings for Kuroko and Index? She was feeling confused. She knew she loved them, but did she *love* them? She thought to herself; she had never really had any sexual type feelings towards anyone before. She wasn’t sure what they would be, what they would feel like. 

She knew what love was, because she was feeling it now, but it confused her. Could she feel *that* kind of romantic love towards both sexes? The books said anyone could, but did that mean that she did? She silently sighed again and decided the best thing to do was take things a day at a time and see what happened.

Kuroko’s eyes fluttered for a moment and then slowly opened. She looked up at Misaka and then realized where she was, in bed, being held by Misaka. She immediately looked fearful and said, “Sissy! I didn’t do anything lewd, did I?”

Misaka laughed gently, took her arm off from around Kuroko’s back and gently rubbed the top of Kuroko’s head. “No, kimi-chan, remember, I asked to sleep with you last night to keep my demons at bay. And it worked! I had no nightmares and the best sleep in months! Doumo arigatou gozaimasu.”

Kuroko blushed deeply to the roots of her hair. “I’m so glad, Sissy. Your dreams have been scary to me. The way you cried out in you sleep, tossing and turning. That’s why I would crawl in bed with you sometimes at night. You seemed to calm down if I just held you a little. [crying] I was sooo worried!”

Misaka was stunned; Kuroko was trying to calm her down, not molest her! She was sad that she had misjudged her.

Misaka gently rubbed Kuroko’s back to sooth her. “Thank you for being there for me. I promise we will all talk today and I will finally try to explain everything. I need to apologize to everyone. I already apologized to you last night, but I need to do so in public too, kimi-chan.”

“Kuroko, breakfast starts in an hour. Let’s let Index sleep in, she’s exhausted after yesterday. How about you and I take a bath together now? I’ll even wash your hair for you? We haven’t done that in a long time!”

Kuroko pinched herself; she obviously was still asleep and having the best dream of her life!

Misaka rubbed Kuroko’s head one more time and said, “Let’s be quiet so Index can sleep. I’ll grab my special shampoo you like.”

Taking turns scrubbing off, Japanese style, before bathing, Misaka got the tub to filling with hot water and bath salts while she shampooed and massaged Kuroko’s hair, a treat the little girl loved. The two girls then entered the large tub, placed cool wash cloths on their heads and laid back to let the heat soak into their bodies and relax.

After a while of pure relaxation, Kuroko said, “Sissy, I’m glad. Whatever you did yesterday, I’m glad. We have not had a nice morning like this in forever. I thought I had lost you, that YOU had lost you. I…I…missed my Sissy…”

Misaka’s heart broke. She knew she had hurt Kuroko, but no idea that it had been this bad. “Kuroko, I don’t know if I can ever forgive myself for making you feel this way. I am so sorry. All I can do is try to be a better friend to you from now on.”

Both girls soaked in silence again. Misaka was gathering her courage. 

“Kuroko, I promised you no more lies, but that also includes lies of omission. I promise, truly promise that when we meet with the others today, I will tell you all the whole truth, nothing held back. I asked Index to be there because she helped me yesterday as a counselor. Honestly, she kept me from going mad. She helped me break through and return to myself. I’m not 100%, far from it, but I’m better.”

Misaka paused, to think of how to tell the next part.

“Kimi-chan, [Kuroko blushed] I told you last night I know that you love me, and that…I…I… don’t know if I can love you in that way. It’s all confusing for me. But I have to tell you some important things that I realized yesterday and today. Please, let me tell you everything before you react. Promise me you will?”

Kuroko was nervous, but she nodded.

“I’m terrified to say these things,” said Misaka, “But I have to tell you everything. First, I confessed my love to Kamijou last night. Not as a crush, but I realized yesterday I truly love him. Deeply. I have no idea how he feels about me and I told him I did not want to know until he figured it out.”

Kuroko fidgeted, but held her tongue, per her promise. She was afraid of something like this.

“You need to know; Index also confessed HER love at the same time as me to Kamijou. She and I had agreed to do this in advance. We agreed that we would be friendly rivals and support each other mutually until he makes some sort of a decision. We told him there was no rush and that we would both prefer to actually go slow and maybe date for a while to see what happens.”

Kuroko’s jaw dropped; she was shocked. Her admiration for her Sissy grew; she was so noble!

“Also, I’ve been thinking about you and I.”

Kuroko thought she was about to faint; Sissy was actually thinking about their relationship!

“I did some reading on this sort of thing and I even asked my Mother about it. Basically, it comes down to the writers think that it’s normal for girls like us, in an all-girls school, to sometimes develop feelings for each other. Some more than others. This is really embarrassing for me. My Mother asked me if you and I…if we…if I had…if we were “ACTIVE”!”

And with that Misaka submerged under the water in embarrassment.

Lack of oxygen eventually caused Misaka to slowly surface with her eyes breaking through first, where she saw Kuroko with the cool cloth stuffed in her mouth, apparently to stifle her laughter!

“I’m sorry, Onee-chan, but your face was priceless!” chortled Kuroko.

“My own Mother!” growled Misaka. “I know, Kuroko, that you have thoughts like ‘that’, but I honestly do not. Not about boys or girls. So, it’s hard for me when you get…grabby…” And Misaka turned all red again.

Kuroko got more serious. “I’m sorry, Sissy, I didn’t know that. I will try to tone it down. I..I…just have never been in love before you either, so I guess it just makes me hyper! I will still defend your virtue though!” she said shaking her fist.

Misaka laughed, “I wouldn’t have it any other way. Let’s go get dressed and wake up Index.”

Waking up Index was a little difficult until Misaka said the magic word: “Breakfast.” Then things moved closer to lightspeed. The girls went to the dorm cafeteria where Index set a new record for number of pancakes consumed in one sitting. Kuroko was in awe.

Breakfast completed, Kuroko asked, “Now what is our plan?”

“We will be meeting Uiharu and Saten in the park by the vending machine and walking to our private meeting place. We will be making a brief stop along the way, and then spending the afternoon with me making myself look bad and the rest of you hopefully forgiving me,” replied Misaka.

Index put her hand on Misaka’s arm. “They are your friends; they love you and were worried about you. They will forgive you,” she said.

Misaka said, “Let me just send texts letting everyone know we are on our way and then we can go, ok?” She quickly texted everyone she intended to and the group left the school.

After walking for a while, Kuroko leaned over to Misaka and whispered, “Don’t look now, but I think someone is following us.”

“It’s OK,” Misaka replied, “I’m expecting it, don’t worry.”

Shortly thereafter they arrived at the park and met up with Uiharu, wearing the bright Flower Band in her hair, and Saten, who promptly flipped Uiharu’s skirt up in the air, exposing her panties for all to see.

“Pretty polka dots!” exclaimed Saten, while Uiharu shrieked, blushed, and fought to pull her skirt back down.

“So mean! And in front of a Nun too!” Uiharu cried.

“Everyone, I would like to introduce you to my friend Index. Index, these are my friends: the girl with the pretty flowers in her hair is Uiharu Kazari and the skirt flipper is Saten Ruiko. Index, you may recognize because she is very good friends with Kamijou Touma and is usually with him.”

“Very nice to meet you both, I am happy to meet more of Misaka’s friends,” said Index.

“I am pleased to meet you too,” said Saten

“Your hair is so pretty! What religion are you? Oh, I’m very happy to meet you too!” said Uiharu.

“OK everyone, I asked us all to get together today for several reasons which will become obvious shortly. I asked Index to come with us because…I…I need her help. I am going to talk with you all very frankly and end all my lies, half-truths, and deceptions today. I hope I will not end our friendships, but I need to clear the air between us. I ask you to feel free to tell me anything you want, feel free to spit in my face, or whatever. I deserve it.”

Everyone gasped a little.

“However, today is also going to involve a little show and tell, like Kindergarten. In a little while I am going to show you one of my biggest secrets. I need you all to promise to keep this a secret and never to tell anyone. Many, many people have already died because of what I am going to show you. If certain people know that you know, they would not hesitate to kill you to either find out what you know or to silence you. Can you all please promise me that you will never say anything?”

Everyone, even Saten made the promise.

“All right, follow me. We are going to make two stops.”

The small group set out wondering where they were going. Index recognized the route they were taking and she had a strong suspicion of what the secret was that was about to be revealed. After they had walked about ten minutes, Misaka got a text that she checked. She then looked up and around and stopped and announced, “OK we’ve reached or first stop.”

Kuroko said, “But this is a construction site and it’s closed and locked.”

“Not to us,” replied Misaka. 

They walked down the road to a small gate, where the lock was conveniently missing. Misaka just opened the gate and walked in. Everyone else looked at each other, shrugged and followed her in.

It was a partially completed office building. The lower levels had doors and the windows had been glassed in. Misaka got everyone together and said, “Now remember, you promised.”

Then Misaka looked around, and called out, “OK Sisters.”

For Index, it was a replay of the previous night, for everyone else, it was a revelation. Suddenly there were Misakas wearing Tokiwadai uniforms and strange goggles everywhere. Coming out of the construction trailers, the door of the building, sitting on the girders, coming in through the gate…hundreds of them. Kuroko fell to the ground in disbelief. The others just turned in circles in wonder. 

“Hello Onee-chan says Misaka 11420. It is a pleasure for the Sisters to see you twice in one week. Hello Index, Misaka 11420 was lucky to speak to you last night, Misaka 11420 inquires if you are well today?

“I am, thank you for asking Misaka 11420. Were you able to get the crepe you desired after the meeting last night?

“Index can remember what Misaka 11420 wanted? Only other Misakas can tell Misakas apart and remember details.”

“I have perfect memory, Misaka 11420. I can remember each of you individually and what we spoke about.”

Index’s words caused a stir in the Misakas. Someone, other than themselves, who could tell them all apart!

“While all of you are technically Identical, you are all individuals and have little differences that make you each a unique individual person and personality. You are all God’s children and all your own unique selves, no matter how much you resemble each other.”

While the Misakas love and adore the Big Sister and their Savior, they will from this moment forward live and die for Index. She just became their Mother.

Misaka hated to interrupt, but she did not want to stay there too long. “Sisters, I am sorry to interrupt, and I will try not to bother you all at once again like this but I just wanted to introduce you all to my other friends. They are Kuroko Shirai, Uiharu Kazari, and Saten Ruiko. My friends, these are my Sisters.”

Kuroko was actually drooling; so many Misakas in one place! Misaka noticed, put a hand on her head, and said softly, “Don’t make me do it.”

“Misaka 11420, where is Misaka 10032?” Misaka asked.

“Since Misaka 10032 took charge of the meeting last night, Misaka 10032 volunteered for sniper overwatch for the meeting today Misaka 11420 replies. Misaka 10032 is on top of the construction site with a BMG .50 caliber semi-automatic rifle with a 10x40 scope mounted on it. Misaka 15325 is acting as spotter states Misaka 11420.”

“What?!” shouted Kuroko.

“You’re off duty,” said Misaka calmly, “Don’t ask, don’t tell.”

“OK, everyone,” Misaka said to her friends, “That was the show part of show and tell today. Sisters, thank you again for letting me abuse your love. Thank you again for your assistance with Index.”

“Misaka 11420 would like to let Big Sister know that Misakas now consider Index to be Mother.”

“What?!”

“Like any good Mother, Index can recognize all of her individual children, Misaka 11420 references Penguins, seals, and other animals whose children appear identical. Misakas have decided to adopt her as our Mother.”

“Oh boy.”

Index didn’t know what to say, she was flustered. All the Misakas went to leave, but they all lined up in front of Index and told her their names as they left. Needless to say, this took some time…

Misaka led the little group back out of the construction site and down the road to her little commando HQ hotel. She went to the Front Desk again to get her key and ordered a sufficient quantity of cakes, pastries, tea, and soft drinks to be sent up to her little suite. Everyone got on the elevator and headed up.

She encouraged everyone to wash off the dust from the construction site and make themselves comfortable, the trolleys, plural (Index’s appetite), arrived and were set up and everyone helped themselves.

Once Misaka knew everyone was settled she looked nervously around the room at everyone and said:

“Where to begin?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK, hope you enjoyed something a little different. I'm already writing on the next chapter. I pretty happy with this. Working on my other story as well. That one is in a really dark place and is interesting...
> 
> I don't think you can totally call this chapter "fluff", but "Mother"? I'm so going to hell if Kanzaki catches me...
> 
> Quick note, I am working on the next chapter. The characters are talking to me, as I like to say. One of my friends just got some devastating news yesterday and told me and I'm a little shook, so this may take some time. Real dot Life is a bitch sometimes. An update here and on the other story may take a day or two.
> 
> Also, I've had a couple ideas of one shots pop into my head that may get done along the way. Hmmm...Uiharu possessed by the spirit of Jack the RIpper...


	10. You Only Hurt the Ones You Love

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tough chapter, it's not done, I'm splitting it in two because, frankly, it's late, I'm sleepy and I got stuff to do tomorrow. LOL
> 
> As per usual: not my anime, not my characters, just my fanfiction
> 
> I hope you like my writing and find it enjoyable. I look forward to any comments.

Misaka took a sip of tea to calm her nerves. She looked at everyone. Index was a pillar of calm, the others looked at her very curiously, with Kuroko actually fidgeting in her seat a little. Misaka drew in a deep breath and let it out.

“Everything begins, and ends, with my Sisters. This whole story, my actions, my inexcusable behavior, lies, and mistreatment of my friends has to do with their story. I am not blaming them, just letting you know it revolves around them.”

“Before I begin, I want to apologize to all of you. I have been a horrid, terrible friend. I lied to all of you. I cut you off when you offered to help, abused our friendship and was inexcusably cruel to Kuroko, who has the grave misfortune to be my roommate and also in love with me. For that I am heartily sorry. I am telling you my story not to ask for sympathy or to use it as a crutch to beg for your forgiveness, but simply to tell you the truth about what happened. To clear the air.”

“Kuroko, Uiharu,” Misaka continued, “I, I committed crimes. Kuroko, I think you suspected it, but could not prove it. The suite we are in was my headquarters while I was out…losing my mind. I needed a place to stay to clean up, change clothes, and sleep…”

Kuroko said, “That explains it.”

“I know you covered for me so many nights with scary Dorm Mother, Kuroko. Thank you.”

Kuroko blushed. Uiharu asked, “Crimes?”

“OK, I’m jumping my story around too much because I am so nervous. I know I’ve lost much of your respect for me and…I’m afraid I will lose our friendship too. I’m surprised it has survived this long…”

Oddly, it was the shy little Uiharu who spoke up. “I have to admit that I was angry at you for a long while Misaka. Really mad!” She stood up and stamped her foot. “We knew you were putting your life in danger, but you wouldn’t trust us enough to help. The worst part was how Shirai was suffering! She doesn’t know, but I walked in on her once at Judgement and she was at her desk, holding her picture of you, and crying like her heart was broken. She kept saying, “Where are you, Sissy? Where are you?” and my heart ached for her!”

Uiharu looked at a stunned Kuroko. “I’m sorry to embarrass you like this. I snuck out and came back in making noise, and you were pretending that nothing was wrong. I even asked you where Misaka was and you said you thought she was studying or something. I knew then something was really wrong; you’re a terrible liar.”

Uiharu whirled back to Misaka, “We don’t care what the problem was, we would have been there for you!” She sat back down. “After all, we are your friends,” she said softly.

Misaka was shocked. If this was how gentle Uiharu felt, she couldn’t imagine how Saten was feeling.

Saten looked at her. “Oh, I was angry too, don’t get me wrong. Then I came very sad that you didn’t trust us enough as friends to allow us to help you and shoulder part of your load. That hurt. A lot. I’m still hurt. But I have to agree with Uiharu. It was worse to watch Kuroko suffer, day after day. She went from enjoying life to the fullest, to becoming a sad shell of herself, with no energy.”

Kuroko blushed, not used to being the center of attention, not realizing that her emotions had been that plain.

“My actions were inexcusable. I was justifying it to myself as too dangerous and I didn’t want any of you to be hurt or killed. But, in the end, it was because I knew I was going to die. I was prepared to die, and, more importantly…”

“I wanted to die.”

Her three friends jaw dropped. 

“Let me go back to the very beginning. Index, can I sit next to you, in case? Thank you.”

“OK, my powers started to manifest very early, like at age four or five; way before puberty. By age six I was a Level 1 on my way to Level 2. One day, when I was at one of those testing centers, the kind they like to send us to. I met with some doctors who showed me through a window a boy in a wheelchair who was trying to stand and walk using handrails. They told me he had a kind of Muscular Dystrophy that would gradually kill all his muscles, including his heart. They told me they thought my DNA might be able to make a treatment to get his muscles to work right.”

Misaka paused for a minute, sipped some tea to keep herself together and continued: “I thought it was horrible watching him struggle to even balance on the bars, so I said yes. They took me to a room and took a lot of blood samples from me.”

“They lied to a little six-year-old girl! It was never for a program to help to treat any disease!” Misaka shouted.

Index took Misaka’s hand and held it gently. Misaka looked at her and smiled in thanks.

“Saten, you are the Queen of Urban Legends,” Misaka continued, “Remember a year ago when the rumors started popping up about Military Clones of Level 5 Espers?”

Saten thought about it a second and nodded. Then did a spit take. “You mean!”

“Wait for it.”

Then the room phone rang, startling everyone. Misaka picked it up gingerly, no one knew she was here. “Uh, hello? Yes, this is she. Who? OK, send her on up.” And Misaka hung up the phone. “Index, I may have cursed you, the Sisters are worried and have sent one here to be with you, just in case you decide to leave the room by yourself.”

Index giggled. “I think my life has changed!”

Kuroko asked,” What do you mean?”

Misaka, “Oh you’ll see in just a moment.”

There was a polite knock at the door and Misaka opened it. In stepped one of her Sisters, wearing the standard Tokiwadai uniform and goggles, carrying a cello case.  
“Greetings says Misaka 16002 to Big Sister, Mother, and Big Sister’s friends. Misaka 16002 apologizes for intrusion, but Misaka Network was worried about Misaka Mother security and sent Misaka 16002 to ensure her safety in case Mother decides to separate from Big Sister.”

“But, 16002, don’t you have other Sisters on overwatch?”

“Misaka 16002 replies yes in the affirmative but it was too difficult to station a Misaka inside the hotel regrets Misaka 16002.”

All the time while Misaka 16002 was speaking, she had opened up her cello case and rapidly assembled a futuristic looking assault rifle, with underslung grenade launcher. She promptly slapped a loaded magazine in the rifle, drew back the bolt and loaded a cartridge in the chamber, put two other magazines in her skirt pockets, and dropped a grenade in the rifle’s grenade launcher. She then chose a seat by the wall where she could see out the window and monitor the door. She pulled down her goggles to maximize her combat readiness.

Everyone, except Misaka, was just staring. Kuroko noted another difference between the Sister and her Sissy: the Sister was definitely *NOT* wearing shorts, but cute little blue striped panties. She then realized that she felt static electricity crawling up and down her body; a sure warning of something bad about to happen, so she whipped her attention back to Misaka, who was starting to give her the Death Stare.

That was definitely a “Don’t even think of molesting my Sister” look.

Uiharu, “Um, is that what I think it is?”

“The Sisters have promised to defend Mother for Big Sister, Misaka 16002 affirms.”

“Mother?” Saten asks quizzically.

Index blushes.

“Ever since the Sisters found out that Index has photographic memory and can tell them apart and, more importantly, remember them, they’ve decided she is the Mother they have been missing,” Misaka explained.

Index blushed deeper.

“Big Sister asked us to help protect Mother like she and Savior do. Misakas will die before anyone harms Mother positively affirms Misaka 16002!”

“Savior?” asked Uiharu.

“Why 'Misaka 16002'?” asked Kuroko at the same time.

“I will explain both in my story, I promise,” said Misaka. “Misaka 16002, I am telling my life story and the Sisters’ story to my friends.”

“Misaka 16002 will stand guard so that no one will interfere, Misaka 16002 states.”

“Where was I, oh yeah Military Clones. OK, all of this gets confusing timeline wise, because we still don’t know all the details. Basically, once I reached Level 5, the military used my DNA to start a cloning program. They wanted an Army of Level 5 RailGuns under their control to use for fighting.”

The other three girls were trying to imagine it; Kuroko for a different reason…

“Anyhow,” Misaka continued, “The cloning process was defective, no insult meant Misaka 16002.”

“None taken, affirms Misaka 16002.”

“The highest level any clone achieved was Level 3, and none of them could generate a RailGun effect. So, the project was declared a failure and shut down and all the clones were left mothballed in their tanks. For years.”

Uiharu gasped. “That’s so cruel!”

“Misaka 16002 states that Misakas were unaware of passage of time.”

“Yes, it was,” said Misaka, “But nothing compared to the cruelty that would follow. You need to understand, the next part is very hard for me. It’s why I asked Index to be here with us. I know I’m jumping around a lot, but I will get there.”

Her three friends nodded. Misaka grabbed a cider, she offered some more treats to Index, who accepted them happily. Everyone else refilled their plates and cups. Misaka 16002 refused since she was on guard duty.

Speaking softly, Misaka restarted. “I spent a good part of yesterday with Index talking. She saved my life. Even though everything I’m going to tell you about has been over for a while, it has still been slowly killing me inside. Without my confession to Index yesterday, I suspect I would have joined the ranks of crazed Level 5s who need to be institutionalized or I would have ended myself.”

“No!” said Saten and Uiharu together.

“Confession?!” shouted Kuroko, clutching her chest.

“Religious Confession, stalker!” laughed Misaka. “Index, if you think it relevant, I give you permission to make comments, as needed.”

Misaka continued, “With Index’s help I will try to get through my story now. Yesterday, when I told her, I had a complete breakdown. Index seriously considered institutionalizing me.”

“It was very bad.” Index confirmed, “I hope to never hear such screams again.”

“Screams?” asked Saten softly.

“I pray you never hear such screams in your life, Saten-san.” answered Index, shivering.

Misaka took a deep breath, “So, somehow an evil Bast…son of a…gun Scientist, Dr. Kihara formed a company and somehow managed to get control of all the Sisters and the cloning process. Kihara is a sociopath, through and through. He cares nothing for human life, and will vivisect a human if he thinks it will benefit his twisted view of scientific advancement.”

“Vivisect?” asked Uiharu.

Misaka looked at her sadly, “It means dissecting someone while they are alive, Uiharu.”

Uiharu looked ill, “Eeped!” and buried her face in her hands.

Misaka stopped to take a drink. Index looked into her eyes, gripped her hands, and asked if she was all right. Misaka laughed nervously and said, “Don’t let Kuroko do what you had to do yesterday; you’ll never get her to stop!” and she laughed some more.

Kuroko’s ears perked up, “What did she do? Why can’t I do it?”

“Maybe I’ll tell you someday…”

Kuroko crossed her arms and pouted…Sissy was keeping something from her when she promised no more secrets. 

Misaka drew a shaky breath. “OK, this is going to be hard. That dirty bas…evil Dr Kihara and his cohorts decided that they would create a new project called the “Level 6 Shift”. You all know I am the, in theory, Third highest Level 5 Esper in Academy City. They were going to take the number one highest and try to boost him to Level Six.”

The three friends, “What!? That’s impossible!!”

“He didn’t think so. Somehow his company got access to the Tree Diagram computer and was able to run programs showing it was possible.”

Misaka stopped. She shuddered. “I need a moment.”

To everyone’s surprise, she turned to Index and buried her face in Index’s neck and shoulder. Index hugged her and rubbed her back to sooth her. “You’re ok. You’re safe. You’re with your friends.”

Index looked sadly at the other three girls and said, “This is the start of where we almost lost Misaka yesterday. Please be patient with her.”

All three girls were stunned, they had never seen their strong, indomitable Misaka so…so…fragile before. Even Misaka 16002 was staring.

Misaka turned back, her face flushed. “I’m sorry. Even though this is over, you need to know this story is still dangerous. The number one Level 5 was…is…I don’t know, it’s complicated, called [spoken bitterly] Accelerator. He was taken in by those…disgusting scientists to be their test subject to promote to Level 6.”

She paused, grabbed a cider, opened it, and took a drink. ”Somehow, that piece of…filth, Kihara, got possession of my Sisters. He took them to his labs and accelerated their growth to match my current…development and decanted them. When the Sisters are born, they are a clean slate; no memories, so they are “educated” by a machine and given some emotions. They learn basics of education and life, and they are taught combat and fighting skills. They have no childhood., no playtime,” Misaka said sadly.

“Misakas have each other always through Misaka network Misaka 16002 replies trying to comfort Big Sister. Misakas wish that Big Sister could connect to Misaka network so she could share in the feeling, Misaka 16002 states sadly. Other Misakas are sending their love to Big Sister and state they do not want Big Sister to be sad. Misaka 10032 states Misaka 10032 will visit you later.”

Misaka got up and walked over to Misaka 16002 and gave her a hug, which Misaka 16002 returned awkwardly.

“Thank you Misaka 16002, that was special for you. Please share this next one with your Sisters.” And Misaka gave 16002 another hug.

If it was possible for a Sister to look nonplussed, Misaka 16002 was doing so.

Misaka sat back down next to Index. “The Tree Diagram computer program worked out that in order for Accelerator to become a Level 6 Esper he needed to accomplish one of two things. One fight and *Kill* me one hundred and twenty-eight times or…or…”

She teared up.

Misaka started again. “When they started the program, they had captured twenty thousand clones…Sisters. Tree Diagram said the other option was for Accelerator to fight and kill all of my Sisters individually and then finally fight and kill me to become Level 6!! I had twenty thousand Sisters! He killed over TEN THOUSAND OF MY SISTERS AND I LET HIM!!! [softer] I…I… Index!”

Misaka collapsed in Index’s arms, sobbing again. The three girls were beyond shocked. This was what Misaka had been carrying around for months? The deaths of ten thousand girls, clones, Sisters, murdered by one Level 5? As a unit they got up and crowded around her and Index, all of them trying to comfort the sobbing Misaka. Kuroko was frantic, she was teleporting around the room almost without control.

Index held Misaka tightly again and was crooning to her in words no one could understand. It worked more quickly this time as Misaka settled down to slow tears and hiccups.

“Kuroko, could you bring a cool cloth from the bathroom, please?” asked Index.

Fastest teleports ever. Kuroko was right there to put the cool cloth on the back of Misaka’s neck.

Misaka slowly turned around to a group of worried faces. Kuroko moved the cloth to Misaka’s forehead.

“I’m [hic] so sorry! [Hic] I thought I was doing [hic] better than this…”

“Sissy!” said Kuroko sorrowfully.

“Misaka…how could you suffer so long in silence like that?” asked Saten, “We’re your friends! We would listen, do anything to help you!”

Uiharu nodded vigorously.

“You don’t understand. Yet. You will. Let me try to continue…”

Misaka sat back up straight again. The others resettled themselves.

“Saten, the Military Clones rumors; then the rumors that people saw me in weird places? I heard them too and scoffed. Then, one day, I was at the park…getting a soft drink from the machine.”

Kuroko made a snarking noise.

“I looked around and saw myself. I saw me, wearing goggles. Essentially I saw someone that looked like Misaka 16002 standing looking at me.” 

Misaka stopped again. “Guys, I’m sorry...so hard…”

“I went over and asked who she was and she introduced herself as ‘Misaka 9982’ and that I was the Original. Since I couldn’t pass her test and give her the counter code, she wouldn’t give me any more information than that. So, we went walking, talking, arguing. We ate Ice Cream together. I gave her a Gekota pin I had just gotten; I pinned it to her… pinned it to her… oh…”

Index took Misaka’s hands again. “Close your eyes. Take a deep breath and hold it Misaka!” she commanded. “Remember what I said!”

The other three looked on concerned as Misaka followed Index’s instructions. They began to realize just why Misaka asked her to be here and her importance to Misaka and Misaka’s mental health. “Do you need to take a Break, Misaka?” asked Uihara gently.

“No!”, responded Misaka forcefully, “No. You need to hear this and I can get through it.”

Kuroko made a decision. She got up and slowly approached the sofa where her Sissy and Index were sitting, like she was walking towards a frightened animal. She gently sat down next to her best friend and slowly reached out a hand and ever so slowly and gently took Misaka’s closest hand in hers and just held it. Nothing more. Just held her hand supportively. Misaka looked at her hand and then looked at Kuroko’s face and smiled timidly.

“I put the pin on her skirt, kind of as a gag so that she would look different from me. She said it was the first present anyone had ever given her and she was so happy.”

“Misaka 9982 shared her happiness with all Misakas that she had received a gift from Big Sister reports Misaka 16002.”

“She…she did?” Misaka asked, tearing up again.

Misaka took a deep breath. “I sent my Sister off to die. She told me she had a mission and I couldn’t be bothered to find out more, so I killed her by sending her off to die.”

Everyone gasped again. Index grabbed Misaka’s shoulders and spun her around to face her. 

“Misaka, what did I say?! You did not kill her!”

“I’m sorry, Index. It’s so hard to stop thinking that. It’s so hard to stop carrying the guilt.”

“Do…do you think you need memory surgery?” asked Index.

Misaka actually stopped to consider it. The others looked like they had been slapped.

“Sissy, NO!”

“Not yet, Index, thank you. I actually slept really well last night for the first time in forever. I think by telling my story again today to my friends, it will help the healing. It is just the pain of the telling…”

Misaka turned back to face the others and actually reached out to hold both Index’s hand and Kuroko’s. Kuroko blushed. Saten and Uiharu looked at each other.

“Uiharu, remember I called you one day and read you some nonsense figures and you decoded them to a location and time?”

Uiharu nodded.

“That was to be the location and time of Misaka 9982’s death at Accelerator’s hands. He had already slaughtered all of her prior Sisters in various horrible ways using his Esper powers. All in the name of becoming a Level 6,” Misaka said in a disgusted tone.

“By the time I got to the railyard where they were fighting, he had…had… beaten her body with his powers. He had, oh God help me Index… he had torn off her left leg and thrown it from her body and was toying with her, mocking her as she was…was…”

Huge gasping breath, like she was drowning.

“I attacked him right away and tried to fight him, but I didn’t know how his powers worked. He laughed at me and mocked me for trying to save her, calling her a ‘wind up toy’ and not a real person. And the whole time she was crawling with one leg. I thought she was trying to get away. I screamed for her to get away.”

Misaka stopped again and took a deep, gasping breath. She was squeezing Kuroko and Index’s hands tightly enough that their fingers were turning white.

“All she was doing was crawling until she could pick up the pin I gave her and hold it! [sobbing] She looked at me and she smiled! SHE SMILED!” Misaka cried out in agony. 

“And then that BASTARD dropped a train car on her and crushed her to death!” she shrieked.

Index and Kuroko both immediately took her in their arms and hugged Misaka tightly while she sobbed in agony. Uiharu turned white and buried her face in Saten’s chest and cried. Saten had tears streaming down her cheeks as well. Never could any of them dreamed that Misaka had gone through something as horrific as this.

“Misaka,” Index spoke gently, “As your counselor, I’m going to insist you take a break for a few minutes. Let’s have you lie down on the bed here. Kuroko, help me get her over there, please.”

Misaka didn’t even resist, she was worn out from emotions. Kuroko and Index got her to lay down on the bed. Kuroko teleported back and forth with a fresh cool cloth and put it on her Sissy’s head. Index gathered everyone together at the other end of the suite where they could speak quietly and give Misaka a few minutes to recover herself.

“I asked to stop here for a few minutes because this is the point yesterday where I thought Misaka-san was going to have a psychotic break. I was in fear for her sanity; I was actually ready to call in some…associates to help me with her as I feared she was going to hurt herself,” Index explained.

“Misaka is doing much better, but please do not mistake that for completely well. If, when she is done explaining and apologizing today, you find it in your hearts to accept and forgive her, she will need all our help and strength. She is a proud girl and does not like to trouble her friends with her problems and ask for help, but I will ask you for her, please. Help me help her.”

With that, Index got back up and went back to the bed. Kuroko paused a moment and then teleported onto the bed to help. Saten and Uiharu could see Index and Kuroko checking on Misaka and talking with her. Saten said to Uiharu, “Did you ever think it was something like this?”

Uiharu’s eyes could not be any bigger as she replied, “No, never!”

Index and Kuroko escorted Misaka back to the sofa and Kuroko got her a can of her favorite cider. Index ate some more cakes because she was hungry and also to give Misaka a little more time.

“You’re all wondering why I never told you,” said Misaka, “Especially Kuroko and Uiharu, Judgement members. Saten, you’re super smart as well. I’m sure if you thought about it for a while you would figure it out. I was afraid for you. Terrified.”

“Why, Sissy!? To protect you is my life!” said Kuroko.

“It was clearly something we could have helped with as Judgement,” added Uiharu. “You didn’t have to be alone in this.”

“My friends, I love you too much to have you killed too. Think! Uiharu, you are our computer expert, our deluxe hacker, what there is to know about computers, you know.”

Uiharu blushed with pride at this praise from Misaka.

“Kuroko, every major incident that happens in Academy City is caught by cameras and sensors placed around the city,” added Misaka, “Correct?”

“Yes,” said Kuroko with pride.

“Saten, my friend with her ear to the ground, Master of the Urban Legend,” continued Misaka, “there is no weird happening that you are not aware of, correct?”

Saten also blushed.

Misaka looked at them and nodded slowly. “So, how were none of you aware of a major battle between the two top Level 5 Espers in a very public location, that involved huge displays of power and property destruction? Uiharu, how was a Corporation allowed to run multiple studies and simulations on the Tree Diagram AI system to investigate the development of a Level 6 Esper, by either Killing off a top Level 5 128 times or slaughtering twenty thousand of her clones and then killing that Level 5 original? Who would authorize and approve such a study without reporting it?”

Misaka spoke softly, “Who would cover up the deaths of ten thousand girls, that had to be on Anti-Skill monitors? Only the Academy City Government has that power. They had to be bought and sold, paid off by the evil bas…scientists involved in these hideous experiments. I’m guessing they were planning on making a profit on selling the secret to making Level 6s. The whole government had to be in on it.”

The three girls looked like they had been told that they were being sold into Prostitution.

“That’s why I couldn’t tell you, wouldn’t tell you! If you started helping me or Uiharu started poking into databases she shouldn’t, you would have never been safe; they would have sent Accelerator after you and I wouldn’t have been able to save you,” Misaka said sadly with tears in her eyes. “I would have killed you too.”

No one said anything. The shock of everything Misaka just said was terrific.

“I did what I thought was best at the time to protect my dearest friends. It hurt me to hurt you, but I know they would have killed you with no more thought than swatting a bug. And then covered it up easily by making it look like a mugging gone bad…or worse…” 

“But I was stupid too. I thought that if I just destroyed their research labs, it would end the program. So, I would go out at night, come here, change my clothes, and then go blow up a lab or two. Then I would come back here, clean up, change, and sneak back into the dorm.”

“You blew up all those labs?!” exclaimed Uiharu, “They said it was an antiscience terrorist group…” Uiharu’s voice trailed off.

“Well, they couldn’t arrest me or kill me before schedule, now could they? Do you see how high the coverup went?”

“Kuroko, remember how you once said that “if anyone were to threaten the peace of the city, even if it were me, your duty remains the same”? When we are done here, I guess you will have to take me in.”

Shocked silence fell over the room. It broken only by what sounded like the < CLICK > of a safety on an assault rifle being set to ‘off’ and the sound of said assault rifle being repositioned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't piss off the Sisters! 
> 
> I don't think 16002 will be letting Misaka go to jail...
> 
> Update 7/12. Sorry nothing new here yet. I’ve been busy and the characters aren’t really talking to me today. ;-) Maybe tomorrow. Try one of my other two stories, if you haven’t read them yet.


	11. The Truth at Last

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, there was a bit of a pause until this one. Hope you like it.
> 
> As always, not my anime, not my characters, just my fanfiction.
> 
> Warnings: graphic death descriptions, talk of suicide, descriptions of fighting

“NO, 16002!” shouted Misaka as she threw Kuroko to the floor and covered her with her body. “Tell them not to shoot!”

Silence again for a moment. Everyone watched in horror.

“Misaka 16002 regrets her actions Misaka 16002 says sadly. Misaka Sisters wanted to protect Big Sister by eliminating threat to her freedom, Misaka 16002 says in explanation.”

Kuroko realized that Misaka might have just saved her life.

“Please tell whoever is on sniper overwatch that my friends are no threat to me. If they decide to arrest me, I will go with them. No Sister is to interfere, please.”

Definitely saved her life… .50 Cal BMG? Kuroko remembered something her Anti-Skill trainer told her once, “You never hear the one that has your name on it.” She shivered.  
Misaka stood back up and gave Kuroko her hand to help her to her feet.

“It’s…ok, actually it’s not ok to shoot my friends, but your heart was in the right place Misaka 16002. Just don’t do it again, please.”

“Misaka 16002, Misaka 10032, and Misaka 15325 apologize states Misaka 16002 to Kuroko-san. Misaka 10032 also states Misaka 10032 is glad her reaction time was delayed by 0.3 seconds adds Misaka 16002 forthrightly.”

Everyone sweat dropped.

“Please tell all Sisters not to shoot my friends.”

“Misaka 16002 has relayed the message. Misaka Worst is laughing in a disturbing way, Misaka 16002 reports.”

Misaka just sighed and sat back down on the sofa next to Index. Kuroko sat back down next to her, looking anxiously at Misaka 16002. 16002 looked relaxed; she re-engaged the safety on her weapon.

Misaka thought for a moment, then got back to her feet and walked over to Uiharu and Saten. She crouched down next to Uiharu and looked her in the eyes. “Uiharu,” Misaka said, taking Uiharu’s hands in to hers, “You have to promise me you won’t try to do any hacking or searching to look into this. Please. Promise me! You don’t know what they still might do; you would just…disappear, and we would never know what happened to you!”

Uiharu looked startled, and then frightened. She slowly nodded.

Misaka next set her sights on Saten and took Saten’s hands in hers. “Saten same thing! No posting on boards; no trying to see Urban Legends. No posting rumors to see if anyone responds. You have no idea how frightened I am for all of you just to tell you this even today. Please promise me!”

Moved by Misaka’s obvious fear for her and Uiharu, Saten replied, “I won’t, Misaka-san, I promise!”

Misaka looked them both in the eyes again and then nodded. She went back to sit by Kuroko and Index.

“OK, now you know why I couldn’t tell you. Now I’ll tell you my biggest mistake, that killed fifty more of my Sisters…”

“Misaka!” said Index sternly.

“Misaka 16002 states clearly that no Sister holds Big Sister responsible for any deaths. Sisters were made to be killed in that fashion, Misaka 16002 explains.”

Kuroko, Saten and Uiharu stared in horror at 16002. Misaka started crying again.

“That’s…that’sssssss…”

Index grabbed her and held her close. “Shhhhhhh, shhhhhhh….”

Misaka leaned back from Index for a moment and looked at the others, “That’s what the Sisters told me that night that Misaka 9982 was slaughtered.” And she put her head back on Index’s shoulder for a minute.

Misaka sat back up again, drying her eyes with her sleeves. 

“I had to do something, so I found where the labs were located and went to start sabotaging all of them. I knew that if I could blow up enough of them it would slow down or stop the experiment. I made sure I never hurt anyone, but I destroyed those buildings. But I was wrong! It didn’t help! They kept KILLING!”

Misaka started panting.

“The more I blew up, the more newer places they built! They built faster than I could destroy! My strategy was wrong and killed fifty more Sisters.”

“Misaka!” said Index sharply.

Misaka drew in a deep, shaky breath.

“Misaka 16002, if only I had reached out to all of you. If only I had tried to get you all to rebel against those scientists; get you to flee. Anything! Ten thousand of you could have fought them! We would have been an army instead of my trying to do it alone.”

Misaka 16002 looked a little confused, then her face turned blank and her voice changed.

“Misaka, this is Will of the Misaka Network < /RETURN >I will answer you < /RETURN > It would not have worked because the scientists never decanted more than about one hundred Misakas at any time < /RETURN > This was to avoid any attempt at an uprising < /RETURN > If you had attempted to rescue the Misakas not yet decanted, they would have used the Kill Switch and destroyed them all < /RETURN > Your plan, while flawed, was reasonable, based on your knowledge at the time < /RETURN >”

“Misaka 16002 is uncomfortable when Will of the Network does that Misaka 16002 complains.”

Misaka was stunned. She had never considered that possibility, she just assumed that all the Sisters were free.

“I see you’ve had another revelation,” said Index.

“Something to think about,” answered Misaka.

“Anyhow, things become very muddled now. When I found out they were building more labs, I decided to strike a different blow; I would go take out the Tree Diagram Master Control Center. I figured if that was destroyed it would at least slow things down a few months if…something else happened…”

“What?!”

“But that place has to be heavily fortified!” said Kuroko.

“You would think so, but there was barely a token there. I got in very easily. Here’s the thing. There was no one working there and had not been working there for a while. Thick dust everywhere. Tree Diagram is missing! Something blew it up, it’s gone!”

“What?!”

“That’s impossible, its blimps are out every day giving the weather and news!” said Uiharu.

“It’s gone. I found all sorts of reports about it being destroyed mysteriously by an unknown super powerful Esper inside, they even thought it might be me! But it’s all space junk floating around. So, I left without doing anything.”

“But I now knew how I could stop the slaughter for once and for all, and I was going to do it soon.”

“The next day I went to the park to go to my favorite vending machine.”

“When I got there, I saw Kamijou there, looking sad,” Misaka continued, “I asked him what happened and he had lost 2,000Yen to the evil machine. After a few moments of laughing at him, I decided to be magnanimous and help him recoup his loses. So, I… turbocharged the machine.”

“Sissy!” “Misaka!” cried out the two Judgement members.

“It deserved it! It robs everyone!” said Misaka. “About a dozen cans came flying out which I gave to Kamijou and just kept a lemonade for myself.”

Uiharu and Kuroko face palmed; Saten just giggled.

“So, we were sitting there talking and another one of my Sisters, Misaka 10032, saw me and said, ‘Hello’, confusing Kamijou. When she spoke in the Third Person, he got more confused. So, I dragged her away to try to find out what was going on.”

Meanwhile, Kamijou decided he would leave “the scene of the crime” and headed back to his dorm. On his way there, he was apparently intercepted by Misaka 10032 as she must have been curious about him.”

“I was surprised when he came back to the apartment with yet another girl,” said Index. “he already had me and Himegami Aisa living in his dorm room and now he showed up with another pretty girl. I thought I was going to have to bite his head, but she just dropped off some sodas and left.”

“You live with Kamijou in his dorm?” Saten and Uiharu

“He lives with two girls in his dorm room?!” Misaka, outraged.

“You think Sissy is pretty too?!” Kuroko, jealous.

Misaka shook herself for a second. “Anyhow! The next day, everything started to come together in the bad way. I ran into Kamijou and said goodbye to him, although he didn’t realize it. I had already said goodbye to you, Kuroko the day before and then left the school so you couldn’t find or follow me.”

Kuroko looked sad, “I knew something was wrong, but you wouldn’t talk to me! I know why now, but it hurt so bad!”

“At some point Kamijou ran into Misaka 10032 again. This time she was trying to rescue a little black kitten she had found. But it was afraid of her because of the field we give off, so she had him carry it. They walked for a while and he went into a store and handed her the kitten. Apparently while he was in the store, another Sister, Misaka 10031, had an appointment with Accelerator across the street in the alley and Misaka 10032 went to observe or help or something, so she left the kitten outside the store.”

“Oh, no,” said Uiharu.

Misaka looked sadly at Uiharu. “Uiharu, my friend, I know you are brave, but I think you should not hear this next part. Truly. I will have difficulty telling it.”

“Misaka…if you are brave enough to tell us, and I know you need to tell us, then I can be brave enough to listen for you. I won’t lie and tell you that your story isn’t scary, but we all love you…I’m your friend and I love you enough to stay here for you.” With that, Uiharu sat up straight and looked Misaka in the eye…although she did reach over to hold hands with Saten…

"While this was happening I wa getting ready to desroy another lab; the lab I was in had cameras recording Accelerator during his fight with Misaka 10031. He was doing disgusting perversions to Misaka 10031, it was awful, I saw everything. He…he…killed her by causing her organs to explode out of her body, all over the alley.” And Misaka started crying again.

Uiharu shrieked and buried her head in Saten’s chest while Saten turned green. Kuroko was looking extremely ill as well.

After a few minutes Misaka wiped her eyes with her sleeve. “Do you see why, WHY I couldn’t involve you?! I still have nightmares about this! I have dreams about this happening to all of you too!”

“Sissy…”

[Sniff] “Let me go on…”

“Apparently Kamijou came out of the store, and he didn’t see Misaka 10032, but he found the kitten. Then he heard all the gunshots, and acted like a Baka. Baka ran to the gunshots. By the time he got there it was all over. He found 10031’s body… he found her sprayed all over the alley and thought it was 10032. He became violently ill and then called Anti-Skill. He didn’t know that the Sisters always clean up the crime scene, so that by the time Anti-Skill got there, the body was gone.”

“Why wasn’t he arrested for a false report?” demanded Kuroko.

“Why didn’t all of your damned Anti-Skill cameras and crime detection equipment detect the sounds of automatic weapons fire, traces of blood, and a body that I SAW EXPLODE ON A SECURITY MONITOR!!! Sounds that Kamijou HEARD TWO BLOCKS AWAY!!” screamed Misaka.

Kuroko recoiled like Misaka had slapped her.

Index actually grabbed Misaka and shook her. Hard. And spin her around so she was facing Index. Index actually looked…angry.

“Misaka,” Index said in an angry, yet sad voice, “do not direct your righteous anger in a misplaced direction at your best friend, who truly loves you from deep within her heart. You are being needlessly cruel. You are better than that! Kuroko loves you with all her heart. Don’t! Just, don’t hurt her soul like that.”

Misaka sat stunned for a moment, then looked at Kuroko’s shocked and sad face and felt her heart break. What an awful thing she had just done! She grabbed Kuroko and dragged her into a fierce hug, pulling the little teleporter as close into her body as she could.

“Oh my God, Shirai, Imouto! I’m so sorry! I’m so, so, sorry! Oh, how could I scream at you like that? Oh no! Oh, oh, oh!” And Misaka wept bitter tears at how she badly she had just hurt her best friend.

At first Kuroko was very stiff. She was hurt at how Misaka had screamed at her, then she was shocked at how Misaka was holding her, now she realized that Misaka was actually contrite and heart broken over her actions. She thought about how Misaka actually called her “Imouto”. Timidly she put her arms around her “Sissy” and started to gently, and then, eventually, equally fiercely start hugging her back.

“Don’t cry like that, Sissy. I know you weren’t mad at me. It’s ok. I know this is hard for you.” 

“Kuroko, I don’t deserve you. I don’t deserve any of you. I’m sorry for destroying our friendships, I’m sorry for screaming at you, Shirai,” Misaka sobbed.

“The sooner you let it all out and get it off your chest, the better you will feel,” soothed Kuroko.

“Misaka, I don’t know how you could keep this inside you so long and not go crazy,” said Uiharu in sad voice. “I feel so bad for you hurting like this for so long!”

“It’s been so hard…let me tell you the rest. Part of this Kuroko knows.”

“I do?”

“After Anti-Skill let him go, the Sisters revealed themselves to Kamijou for some reason in the back alleys. 

“Misaka 16002 states it was because of the tears he shed for Misaka 10031. Misaka 10032 made the decision states Misaka 16002.”

“Oh, I didn’t know that! Anyhow, he saw them carrying the body and they told him about the experiment. They also told him that they knew I was trying to stop it, but they didn’t think I was going to succeed on my own. Well, that was like waving a red flag to Kamijou and he came charging up to my dorm room, in the middle of the night.”

“He tried to sneak into your room?” asked Saten.

“Like that could happen with my Virtue Protector to defend me,” laughed Misaka.

“I remember that night!” said Kuroko, “The Ape rang the bell from outside and thought I was you through the intercom, but I let him in because it was suspicious that this boy I had caught her with before was coming by so late and I wanted to see if he had been molest…I mean knew where you were.”

“I brought him in the room and tried to find out if he knew where Misaka was. He was being all sneaky and trying to see what I knew. I was wearing my pajamas and he kept looking at me too, like boys like to look at girls.”

“Grrrrrrr, Touma!”

“Then the Dorm Mother came knocking and Misaka still wasn’t back and I had this strange boy in my room! I had no choice, I stuffed him under Misaka’s bed and then quick went out the door to talk with the Dorm Mother outside the room.”

“While he was under my bed, he found the secret papers I had stashed there which detailed all the info about the savage experiments, murders, timeline, buildings I was blowing up. Everything,” Misaka said.

“Sissy, you hid it all there?”

“Face it, Kuroko. *Under* my bed was the last place you would ever be…” Misaka said, deadpan.

And everyone laughed.

“So now we are coming up to my grand plan to stop this slaughter of my Sisters. I had worked out the only way to do. Blowing up facilities wasn’t doing it, Tree Diagram was already blown up, so there was only one thing left to do.”

“What was it?” Uiharu asked breathlessly.

“As we know, for their experiment to work, Accelerator needed to either kill me 125 times, or slaughter 20,000 of my Sisters and then kill me. Since Tree Diagram Super Computer Satellite was destroyed, if I could sabotage their experiment in another way, they would not be able to rework the numbers to correct for the error. I knew the time and location of the next attack; I was going to go and substitute myself for Misaka 10032. I was not going to let another Sister die”

“I was only going to put up a token fight with Accelerator and then let him kill me. It was my turn to die.”

“NO!”

“If I died in such a miserable fashion, with less of a fight than my level 2/3 Sisters, it would destroy the experiment. No super computer to recalculate or recalibrate; no comparable Level 5 to fight. Game over. And ten thousand Sisters live. My life for the ten thousand who died and for ten thousand more to live. Seems like a fair exchange to me!”

Her three friends were aghast. “You, you can’t mean that,” said Uiharu softly.

“I had already made my peace with it. I WANTED to die,” Misaka said. Then more softly, “I just wanted it over. My only regret was none of you would ever know what happened to me.”

“So, what happened? What changed your mind?” Saten asked softly.

Misaka, who was never really comfortable with being touched was actually resting comfortably on the sofa with both Kuroko and Index’s arms around her, supporting her. Misaka looked like she was drawing strength from the two of them.

Misaka sighed and said, “That Baka Kamijou came and found me on that old bridge near the railyard. He read all those papers and figured out when and where the battle was scheduled and then just hunted around until he found me.” She smiled sadly.

“Hmph!” Said jealous Kuroko.

Misaka gave her a very light zap on her nose. “Don’t be jealous you haven’t heard the whole story!”

“So, he talked about Misaka 10031, how the Sisters had told him about my fighting for them. That he gone to my dorm room. That Kuroko flirted with him for an hour…”

*SHRIEK!* 

“I DID NOT!”

Misaka and the girls laughed until their sides split. Kuroko’s face was a flaming red. Even Index was laughing.

“You! YOU TAKE THAT BACK! I would NEVER flirt with a boy, especially not that APE! I’m true to my Sissy!”

“Oh, Kuroko, I’m sorry, that was a cheap shot, but I wanted to lighten the mood a little and you have to admit it was too funny!”

“Grrrrrrr.”

Before anyone could say or do something, Misaka whipped forward like a snake striking and planted a quick kiss on Kuroko’s cheek. Kuroko fell back stunned, her hand slowly raising to the cheek and caressing it.

“Does that make up for the bad joke?” asked Misaka innocently.

No answer from Kuroko, who just looked stunned.

“I think you broke her,” replied Saten, giggling.

“What really happened is Kamijou got mad and lectured me about being stupid and not letting anyone help me. Of course, I got mad and yelled at him for being the same way and how dare he lecture me! Then the Jerk figured out I was planning to let myself get killed to save my Sisters and he got more mad and we yelled some more. The he stopped and got all sad. It actually hurt to see him so sad.”

Misaka stopped and looked at Index again. Index took both of Misaka’s hands in hers.

“Misaka, it’s ok, it’s over, you talked to him already.”

Misaka looked back at the others. “What I’m going to tell you now you can’t tell anyone either, because it would be bad for Kamijou; it would…will make him a target. Kamijou is listed a Level 0, but that’s not right. He has a power that can’t be measured. He can negate any, and I do mean ANY Esper ability, including my RailGun. Simply, if it touches his right hand it is negated. Period. If this gets it, it would be like the Old West with everyone attacking him trying to se if he can negate their power, so please don’t tell anyone.”

Everyone nodded.

“So, Kamijou told me my life had meaning and I couldn’t throw it away. I screamed at him thinking he meant that my Sister’s live had no meaning, just because they were clones. He told me he would stop me from going t my death and he stood in front of me and blocked my path by spreading his arms. I told him I would electrocute him, that I would RailGun him if he didn’t move and he just stood there. He didn’t even try to block me!”

Misaka starts to cry again.

“So, I shocked him. And he fell down, and he slowly got up again. I hit him harder, and blew him back. And, and he got up again. And all the time he just kept saying, “I will not fight you”, and I shocked him worse and worse!”

“Misaka no!” cried Uiharu.

“I’m so ashamed,” said Misaka.

“What finally happened?” asked Saten.

“I broke down, I couldn’t do it anymore. So, we started talking trying to find a plan where no one died. Kamijou figured the best way to destroy the plan of those assh…Evil guys was for a Level 0, namely him, to defeat Accelerator instead. So, we went there with me meeting up with Misaka 10032 to try to protect her and Kamijou to fight Accelerator. It was a mess: Kamijou got hurt, Misaka 10032 almost lost her right eye, we had to get all the other Sisters to help by manipulating the city wind turbines…”

“That was the night with the rogue Typhoon from nowhere that was unpredicted and they urged everyone to shelter in place?” asked Kuroko.

“Remember what I said about coverups?”

“I gather you won in the end?” asked Saten.

“Kind of. Kamijou knocked Accelerator out with his power, defeating him totally. The experiments were apparently declared a failure and ended and all the Sisters released to Dr. Heaven Canceller. But the Evil Bastard who started it all escaped, possibly from the city. So, Judgment, what are the odds of that happening without high level help? Not to mention that this whole thing has been totally covered up and you would not know about it at all with my telling you?"

“And, I still see my dead Sisters when I close my eyes…”

Misaka shivered.

“That’s why I never told you. That’s why I was and still am afraid to tell you. If they are still covering this up, what could happen if they find out about you? You are really my only friends here. I couldn’t bear to lose you. That’s why I never told you until now. Until Index convinced me I needed to; that I was hurting you all.”

Misaka looked at each one of her friends individually.

“I am so sorry for my behavior when all you were trying to do was be my friend and I spit in your face.”

“Please forgive me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope this was interesting for you. Comments and critiques always welcome.
> 
> Thanks to all who have left comments and kudos, much appreciated.
> 
> I'm still trying to decide if I want to leave this here or continue. Decisions decisions.
> 
> Any opinions? I'm going to think about it.


	12. To Forgive, Divine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to come back and work on this story for a bit. Needed a break from the death and dismemberment on the other one. Oh, ignore the dismemberment comment. Spoilers.
> 
> Per usual: not my anime, not my characters, just my fanfiction.
> 
> No warnings except for suggestive situations and talk.
> 
> Please enjoy.

Kuroko, Uiharu, and Saten all sat back; they didn’t realize they had all been leaning forward until Misaka finished her story. Misaka looked wrung out.

Misaka sighed. “I’m going to take a bath to try to relax and give you all some privacy. Index can answer any questions you have, I give her permission.” Misaka went into the bathroom and closed the door.

“Well,” Saten said. “I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t that.”

“Gods and Misaka forgive me, but, at first, I thought she and the Ape were…together…and something had happened…you know…” Kuroko said, all red, “because she’s so innocent about stuff like that…”

“You thought Misaka and Touma…and she was…” Index turned bright red.

“KUROKO!” cried Uiharu and Saten together, turning red.

“It was stupid and I was jealous because she was gone all night and would come back tired the next day! And her clothing would be all wrinkled and everything!” 

“KUROKO!” cried Uiharu and Saten together again.

“Well, then she asked me what I would do if she had done something horrible to the city and I told her I would arrest her, of course, and she got sad. Then she never talked to me about anything again.”

“Do you think she might have been reaching out to you and you scared her off?” asked Uiharu.

“I don’t know, that was right before she disappeared, which was when she told us now, she was going to kill herself,” Kuroko said sadly.

“I can’t believe there is a force in the city that can produce a coverup of this magnitude,” said Uiharu. “It boggles my mind.”

“Misaka is very sincere in what she said,” Index answers, “She is in horrible fear for all your lives simply by explaining herself to you all. Over ten thousand deaths covered up. The loss of that satellite thing covered up.”

“Uiharu, how many people worked everyday on Tree Fall that would have to be contained to stop them from telling that the satellite is gone?” Kuroko asked.

Uiharu’s eyes got huge. She nodded slowly. “Not just the scientists and techs, but the programmers, the other countries that track things in space…that’s a lot of people to silence!”

Saten shivered, “I can see why Misaka was…and is terrified for us. Anyone that can silence not only that many people, but that many governments, could swat us like a bug and not think twice. Wouldn’t even care.”

“The thought that the mysterious “They” could have sent someone after us who even Misaka couldn’t stop frightens me so much,” Uiharu says. “Misaka said she still has nightmares about seeing him kill us. I’ve made up my mind. I will forgive her and hope she can forgive herself.”

Index smiled brightly at Uiharu.

“You all know I love Sissy more than anything.”

The others nodded.

“Last night she…confessed to me, in a way…it meant more to me than gold or diamonds.”

“She confessed?!” Uiharu and Saten shouted.

“In a way. She said she loves me, but not in the same way I love her, and doesn’t know if she can. But she also apologized then and now. I could tell her heart was broken last night about everything and I already had forgiven her then. Today changes nothing for me, except that my heart is broken that there was nothing we could have done to make her life easier during all the horrors she endured.”

“Honestly, for me, Misaka didn’t really need to justify herself,” said Saten, “I’m sure our relationship would have suffered trust issues for a while and then probably would have gone back to something close to what we had before, with just a slight chill to it. Hearing why she wouldn’t, or more specifically, felt she couldn’t tell us, removes all that. I agree with Kuroko, I wish we could have helped her to ease that horror.”

“She will be fragile, and hiding it, for a while I’m afraid,” said Index. “She will put up a strong front, but she is still coming to grips with the deaths of over ten thousand Sisters. I hope you all will allow me into your circle of friends, please, so I can both share in your friendship, which I would cherish, and to help with Misaka as well.”

The three other girls all looked at each other. “I thought we had, silly!” said Uiharu, smiling.

Index clapped her hands happily and laughed. “Thank you! You are my first girl friends here!”

The girls quickly exchanged numbers. 

“Index,” Kuroko asked, “Misaka needs counseling, doesn’t she? Is that something you can do for her? I don’t want to see her hurt herself or lose herself.”

“Yessss,” Index replied, “She will, and I can. All of you can help too. Reach out to her, listen to her, but don’t smother her. Just bring things back to normal.”

“Was her talk with you really bad?” asked Uiharu.

“Uiharu,” Index said, “I swear to you I thought I had lost her. Never have I heard such shrieks from the depths of a tormented soul. I hope to never again hear something like that.”

There was a knock from the bathroom door and it cracked open. “Can I come back out?” Misaka asked shyly.

“Come back to us, Sissy,” said Kuroko.

Misaka came back out with her hair still a little damp, her head was down because she was afraid to look her friends in their eyes. She went to go sit in a chair by herself, but Kuroko teleported to her side, grabbed her hand and towed her over to the sofa to sit next to her and Index; making sure that she got her arm around Misaka’s shoulder in a non-threatening way.

“Look us in the eyes, Misaka,” said Uiharu, “We love you! How could you think we wouldn’t!”

“Some of us more than others,” giggled Saten.

“Hey!” said Kuroko, before giggling herself.

Misaka looked at all the faces, looking at her like they normally would, and then burst into tears. 

“I DON’T DESERVE YOU!” she sobbed.

They all swarmed her, hugging her tight in a group, crying as well.

After a few minutes they settled back down and Misaka turned to Index and took her by the hands.

“Index, I could not have made this progress without you. But I know I will need more help; will you continue to help me, please?”

“Of course, Misaka.”

Misaka leaned forward and kissed Index’s cheek. “Thank you. You saved my life.”

Kuroko didn’t even get jealous. However, Uiharu was “adjusting” Misaka’s phone while she wasn’t paying attention…

“Misaka,” Index said, “Don’t you have something else to tell your friends?”

Misaka blushed.

“Well, I did tell Kuroko this morning to avoid any unpleasantness…”

“You have to tell us too!” cried Saten.

“Um, I confessed to Kamijou my love yesterday.”

“WHAT?!” screamed Uiharu and Saten.

“So did Index!” Misaka said defensively. “We agreed to tell him at the same time and then let him have time to work it out. Index will be staying with us the next few days while Kamijou thinks things through. We agreed to be friendly rivals and would prefer to take turns dating him, if he will let us as neither of us has any experience with boys.”

“I’ve never been kissed,” Index said shyly.

“Neither have I,” said Misaka.

“Well, that blows your theory, Kuroko,” laughed Saten.

“What theory?” asked Misaka.

“No, not important!” stammered Kuroko as she turned red.

“Oh, no!” said Uiharu, blushing furiously, “it’s too good not to tell!”

“I need to go to Judgement now!” said Kuroko as Misaka gave her just enough of a shock to stop her from teleporting.

“When you were disappearing at night, hahahahaha,” Saten said laughing, “Kuroko thought you and Kamijou, hohohohoho, were hahahahaha and that’s why you were out all night!” and Saten and Uiharu were laughing, Index was giggling, Misaka was a furious red, and Kuroko was in fear for her life.

“Misaka, remember Dorm Mother! Control! Probation!”

“IS THAT WHY THERE WAS A SEX EDUCATION BOOKLET IN MY SCHOOL BAG?!”

Saten and Uiharu were rolling on the floor.

“I was trying to protect you,” Kuroko said in a small voice, “and I was jealous too.” She turned red.

Misaka sighed. Then she laughed too. “OK, I guess I could see that. But I haven’t even thought about kissing yet!”

Uiharu looked shyly at Saten then looked at Misaka and said, “I practice on my pillow.” Then blushed again.

Misaka looked at Index and said, “Index, to be serious, if Kamijou decides he will give up on his balloon chest fetish and date us, or at least try, I think we should try dating alternate weeks. And you should have the honor of the first week.”

Index blushed, “Why? You have known him longer!”

“Because you saved my life.”

“OK, I almost forgot! Saten, Uiharu, Kuroko. We have something important we must do for Index. Uiharu and Kuroko, since today is your day off, I am telling you this as my friends, not as Judgement. Got it?” Misaka said, looking at them sharply.

The two girls looked at each other and then Misaka. They nodded.

“Index is here illegally. She is technically a refugee, if you like. She came fleeing bad people who were trying to harm her and ended up with Baka who saved her. We need to make her legal so that the bad people can’t come and try to drag her away. What can we do?”

“Index, do you have a Passport?” asked Uiharu.

“Yes, but it’s blank, it was never stamped to enter Japan.”

The girls groaned.

Uiharu pulled out her laptop and started typing furiously. 

“What if we got a boat and landed her at the port and brought her in like that?” asked Saten.

“How would we get a boat?” answered Kuroko.

“I don’t know if I want to do this, because it would get WAY too many people involved, but I could beg Kongo-san to ask her Father to use a private plane to fly Index, say to Hong Kong and back to have her enter legally…” said Misaka.

That went over like a lead balloon.

Uiharu looked up from her computer. “I have a crazy idea, Misaka, but it depends on how well you get along with your parents.”

“We get along fine. What is the idea?”

“Yôshi engumi.”

“Yôshi engumi? But that’s traditionally done to add a male heir to a family line, especially for business purposes!”

“Actually Sissy, it can also be used to recognize Same Sex Marriages.”

“What are you saying, Uiharu?!” cried Misaka blushing as Index also blushed.

“It is also used to add an adult or almost adult child to a family when the family wishes to have more children, Since Index is fifteen years old, she is the ideal age. Since she has no parents to contest and she can state her own preferences, this would be possibly the easiest solution,” Uiharu said.

“Sissy, your parents are from a small town, if they know the right lawyers and people, they could probably move this through quickly and quietly.”

“Index, would you want to be my Sister?”

“Nothing would give me more pleasure.”

“OK, I will try this with my parents. Although, after the phone conversation I had about Kuroko, my Mother may assume it is about marriage.”

“Oh?” from Saten and Uiharu.

“Misaka’s mother asked her if Misaka and I were Intimate,” explained Kuroko.

“SHRIEK!”

Saten, Kuroko, and Uiharu were laughing hard again as Misaka was the picture of misery.

“OK, I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m hungry and I’m sure poor Index is famished. There’s a nice, all you can eat Yakitori restaurant near here. My treat?”

The girls all agreed. Misaka 16002 was going off duty, but Index would have a “shadow”. When Misaka 16002 left she said, “Good night, Mother,” to Index. 

The girls grabbed a both together at the back and ordered a big tray to get themselves started. They chatted like they would have prior to the killing of the Sisters. 

“How will you handle dating, if Kamijou decides to begin dating?” asked Saten. “He doesn’t have a lot of money to go out, does he?”

Index and Misaka looked at each other. “We haven’t thought about that yet,” Index admitted, “I think just spending time getting to really know each other will be part of it.”

“Plus, there are things that can be done here that are free or almost free,” Misaka said. “Concerts, shows, the parks.”

“But first Kamijou has to decide if he even wants to date or be with either one or both of us,” Index said. “After the time he took off all my robes and saw me nude, he told me he liked his women with much bigger chests,” she said sadly.

“Sissy! Calm down! Don’t spark in public like that! Dorm mother! Deep breaths!”

“Saten, remind me to slap his face when we see him again!” said Uiharu.

“Regardless, I will help make Index legal here, whatever it takes. When we return to the dorm, I will contact my Mother and see about getting the ball rolling. Index, if we have to get married, so be it.”

“SHRIEK! SISSY!”

“Kuroko, you will have to date Kamijou instead.”

“SHRIEK!”

“He told me how you kept unbuttoning your pajama top lower and lower…”

“SHRIEK!” followed by incoherent babbling.

All the girls were laughing again while it was Kuroko’s turn to turn beet red, her eyes spinning in her head.

“I really think you broke her this time!” Saten laughed out.

“I am serious though, Index. If it takes marrying you, so be it. I owe this debt to you, I *will* repay it.”

“Misaka, I helped a person in pain. To quote Touma, “I brought back your smile” you owe me nothing.” 

“I owe you everything, you brought me back to life and helped restore my friends’ trust. If I can help you secure your freedom in return, I will consider myself blessed.”

“Index, I think I speak for the rest of us, we thank you for all you have done to restore Misaka to us,” said Uiharu, “We didn’t know what was wrong or how to reach her, and you did.”

After a satisfactory meal that fully satiated Index, the girls happily parted ways. After they were a couple of blocks apart, Kuroko got a text from Uiharu that read, “Call Misaka’s phone.” Curious, Kuroko, who was walking with Misaka and Index, called Misaka’s phone and heard it ring, loudly with a girl singing: “I Kissed a Girl and I liked It!”. 

Misaka yanked the phone out of her pocket, saw that the call was from Kuroko and immediately starting sparking and looking for her. Kuroko had meanwhile teleported to the top of a nearby building. “It wasn’t me!!! It was Uiharu!!!” she shouted down.

Misaka turned to look and saw what appeared to be Uiharu and Saten in each other’s arms, laughing hysterically; sadly out of range of her powers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will be working on this some more, along with the other one. Just needed a break from the sturm und drang.. I hope you liked it.
> 
> Thanks for your kind comments, critiques and suggestions, I love hearing from you.
> 
> Had wicked bad cluster headaches today so was not productive other than this short update. Sorry folks, let's see what tomorrow brings.


	13. Index, Will You Marry Me?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another short Chapter, but hopefully fun
> 
> As always, not my anime, not my characters, just my happy fanfiction
> 
> From the previous chapter and here as well. "Yôshi engumi" is a real thing in Japan. I *might* be abusing it slightly but my descriptions of it are basically correct and it is used for same sex marriages.
> 
> No real warnings other than my bad humor and some innuendos...

Misaka and company made it back to the dorm without further incidents. Once there, she looked at Index and Kuroko and said, “I’m going to contact my Mother now, while my courage is still with me. I know my parents are very supportive of me, but this will probably be one of the strangest things I have ever asked them.”

She opened her laptop and started a videocall to her Mom. After a few rings, her Mom’s computer started to answer and her Mother’s face appeared. Kuroko was enthralled: her Sissy’s Mom, looked like she could be Misaka’s older Sister. She was beautiful! Kuroko sighed. 

She then heard the sounds of sparks snapping. She leaned forward and whispered quickly in Misaka’s ear, “I was only thinking about how even more beautiful you were going to be in a few years, Sissy!”

The sparking stopped and a flush started from Misaka’s neckline and quickly crept up to her face.

“Mikoto-chan! What a nice surprise! How is my baby?”

“Hello Mother, I’m doing well, how are you and Dad?”

“Well, your Father is away for two days on another trip and I am studying for an exam for tomorrow, but can use the break. Especially when I get to talk to my favorite daughter!”

“Technically your only daughter.”

“Except for the other 9970!”

“How is University going?”

“Very well! Dean’s List for sure! And is our daughter doing us proud?”

“I’m doing my best Mother, my grades are very good, and I’m striving to improve.”

“You’re a good girl, Mikoto. I know you will always do your best. Now, what is the real reason for your call?”

Misaka blushed.

“You never call me unless it’s important. Are you needing more “girl talk”? Are you and Kuroko…”

Misaka starts frantically waving her arms, “NO! Nothing like that! And she’s here with me, don’t give her ideas!”

“Hi Kuroko-chan! I think the two of you would be such a cute couple!”

“SHRIEK! MOTHER!”

“She’s very shy, so it may take a while.”

Misaka was praying that the world would just end.

“Misaka-sama, I think you are killing your daughter,” Kuroko said very respectfully.

Misaka’s mom laughed cheerfully. “That’s a Mother’s job! Next call will be baby pictures!”

“SHRIEK!”

Misaka’s Mom laughed merrily.

“Mo-ther. I actually called because I need to discuss something very serious with you. I was hoping Dad would be there too as this will involve him. I think this will use up every favor I may ever ask for in the rest of my life.”

“Oh, Misaka, so serious. What happened, Sweetie?”

“Mother, this is my friend, Index. Index Librorum Prohibitorum. She is from England, and she has a problem. I cannot explain everything to you over this link, but I owe her more than I can tell you and I want to repay my debt to her. I have a giri.”

“Pleased to meet you, Misaka’s mother.”

“A pleasure, Index. Are you of a Holy Order?”

“Yes, I am a Nun of the Church of England, the order of Necessarius.”

“It’s too long and hard to explain, Mother, but she is my good friend and also counselor and she needs my, well, our help.”

“Do you need money, Misaka?”

“It’s not that simple, I’m afraid Mom. This is going to be a lot to ask of you and Dad.”

“Just spit it out Sweetie.”

“Could you and Dad perform Yôshi engumi for Index for me, please?” asked Misaka, bowing very low.

Her Mom’s mouth opened very wide. She closed it and thought for a minute. “You want us to adopt her as our child to be a Sister for you?”

Misaka sighed with relief, “Yes Mother, she needs protection and a way to stay here legally and safely. Since we are from a small town, I thought perhaps you and Dad might have good legal connections that could move it through quietly. Index has no family, she’s an orphan.”

“Index, is this what you want too?”

“Yes Misaka-sama, I would love to be Misaka’s sister and would be honored to become your daughter,” sad Index bowing deeply.

Misaka’s Mom rubbed her chin. “I will have to talk this over very carefully with your Father. Can we meet with you one day this week in Academy City to meet Index and speak with both of you?”

Misaka sighed with relief. “Yes, I would love both of you to meet her! She is a wonderful person.”

“Sweetie, what is your backup plan?”

“Mother, I realize I am asking a great deal from you and Father for this in a very short time frame and will understand completely if you are unwilling or unable to do this. It is a completely selfish thing for me to ask. If you ae unable to adopt Index, then I will do Yôshi engumi myself and marry her.”

From behind her she could hear a strangled noise and then what sounded like a head pounding into a pillow on a bed.

Her Mother nodded and said, “I expected no less. I am so proud of you! Let me talk to your Father. I will call you later this week and let you know about when we can meet.”

“Thank you. I love you Mom, give my love to Dad!”

“I love you too, Sweetie! Nice to meet you, potential new daughter! Keep trying, Kuroko!”

And her Mom disconnected.

Misaka let out a huge sigh and looked at Index, who smiled at her brightly. “Well, that wasn’t as bad as I thought. She didn’t say no right away. They are willing to meet you. It’s still a long shot, Index, but I am trying.”

They looked over at Kuroko, who had buried her face in her pillow and then wrapped the pillow around her head. Misaka took advantage and quickly went through her small box of jewelry, when she saw Kuroko finally surface, she turned to Index and winked.

“I should do this correctly, Index-no kimi.” Misaka walked to Index and raised her to her feet, and then Misaka knelt down and took Index’s Left hand in both of hers and put a ring on her left ring finger. “Index, will you do me the honor of marrying me and being my wife?”

Misaka heard a horrible thud behind her. She turned her head and Kuroko was out cold on the floor.

“Misaka, for shame! That was a horrible thing to do to poor Kuroko!” said Index as she and Misaka rushed over to Kuroko and lifted her off the floor and onto her bed. Misaka held Kuroko in her arms while Index went and got a cold, damp cloth to put in Kuroko’s face. The two girls took turns patting Kuroko’s cheeks and caressing her head and back until she finally opened her eyes again. 

Kuroko’s eyes filled with tears.

“Sissy, how can you be so cruel and propose to another in front of me, your one true love?”

“Oh Shirai, I’m so sorry! It was meant to be a joke and it turns out to be a bad one. I should have never done that to you!”

Kuroko laid in Misaka’s arms, enjoying the sensation of being held for a while. She decided to go for broke.

“I think, Misaka, a little kiss might help me recover from the shock…”

“Oh, you had a “shock” did you? A shock that needs a kiss?” Ominous snapping and crackling noise began. “How about a kiss that electrifies you?”

Kuroko disappeared from Misaka’s arms and reappeared behind Index. “What a lovely engagement ring, Index-chan!”

Index giggled, “You two are so funny together! You make me laugh!”

“OK, Kuroko-chan, I think you have recovered enough from your shock. I think we should go for dinner to make sure Index does not starve to death overnight. I have a little homework to do. Have you any, Shirai?”

“Just some studying.” 

“Index, my Sister or Fiancée, as the case may be, would you be my and Kuroko’s dinner guest?” Misaka asked, bowing low.

Index giggled again while Kuroko face palmed. The trio went down and had a nice dinner, with Index putting away the grilled fish and rice like crazy. They returned to the room and Index went into the bathroom to get ready for bed while Misaka and Kuroko worked on their homework. After Index was done, Kuroko went in as Misaka had already had a bath and was just planning on changing after she finished her homework and studying.

Index crawled into Misaka’s bed and said, “Misaka, come sit with me.”

Misaka came and sat next to her.

“Misaka, do you think Touma will want to be with us? Either you or me? It’s time for my confession to you. I’m so afraid of his rejection, Misaka.” And little Index had tears falling from her eyes as she looked at Misaka from under the blankets.

Misaka was shocked for a moment. Index was actually showing vulnerability that she wasn’t expecting. She reached out and took Index’s hand. “Index, I’m afraid too. I’m afraid of what I’m feeling. I’m afraid of being rejected; of being hurt.”

“Yes, exactly,” said Index. “I have no memories of being hurt before this so I don’t know if it’s happened before, so it’s all new to me, but I’m so afraid.”

“For me, Index, I’ve always been a “Tomboy”, never really a girly girl. Kuroko, for all her…man-hating, woman-chasing, has always been much more feminine than me. I look more like a boy than a girl! My own Mother thought I liked girls!”

“Oh Misaka, no one would mistake you for a boy. And chest size isn’t everything! Grrrrrr, even if Touma thinks it is.”

“But, Index, if Kamijou does reject us, it will hurt for a while, but we will pick ourselves up and move on. Maybe we can still be friends with the Baka, maybe not. It will depend on him. I can’t see him being cruel about it, it’s not his nature.”

“True, but I don’t know how I can handle living with my heart broken.”

“We will have each other! I hope that if Kamijou chooses you over me, that you will find it in your heart to stay my friend as I promise I will support the two of you in your lives together, no matter what.”

Silence.

“Misaka, you have humbled me before my God, because while I can easily promise you that Touma chooses me over you, I know that I would still be your friend, but I think I would need to withdraw from your lives back to England because it would be too sad for me if the opposite were true.” Index started to cry. “God forgive my weak soul for being jealous of my friend!” Index broke down weeping. Misaka pulled her into her arms and held her tightly.

“Shhhh, Index, it’s a normal feeling. You are human after all. You have no idea how jealous I was when I found out you were living with Kamijou! I was green with envy and jealousy, that’s when I started to realize I had feelings for the Baka!”

“But what if he rejects us both?”

“Well, then we just get married to each other and show him what he missed out on!”

They looked at each other for a second and then fell out laughing on Misaka’s bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There will be more, I promise you. What has the unluckiest man in the world been up to?
> 
> Will he decide to date both? Only One? Which One? WHat happens if he breaks Index's Heart and Kanzaki finds out? Kamijou Sashimi?
> 
> Stay tuned for the answer to these and other questions same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel.  
> Damn, I'm showing my age.
> 
> Hope you are enjoying, feel free to write and tell me what a horrible, I mean great job I'm doing. ROTFL.
> 
> Hey, at least I'm not beating up Uiharu this time!


	14. It's Getting Serious

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for coming by to read another chapter...we're getting close to the end, so thanks for hanging in there.
> 
> Not my anime, not my characters, just my fanfiction.
> 
> No warnings needed, hope you enjoy.

“What’s so funny?” asked Kuroko as she came out of the bathroom brushing her hair.

Misaka and Index caught their breaths. “Oh, you won’t think it’s funny, Kuroko, I don’t want to hurt your feelings.”

Kuroko pouted, “Please? You were laughing so hard.”

“OK we were talking about what we might do if Kamijou rejected both of us, and we decided that we would get married anyhow, live well, and show him what he was missing!”

“Sissy!” Kuroko cried.

Misaka felt mischievous. “Index, does your Church say anything about ‘Open Marriages’ or Polygamy?”

Kuroko looked hopeful.

“Misaka. Are you teasing poor Kuroko again?! Shame on you twice over! Kuroko, come here next to me.”

Kuroko shyly walked over and sat on the other side of Index. Index took the brush out of her hand and started brushing Kuroko’s hair.

“This is fun! I’ve never done it for someone else before! Anyhow, Kuroko, you are a wonderful girl and I am lucky to have you as a friend, as is Misaka. We all know she is the great love of your life, and for that she is blessed and a lucky, lucky girl.”

Both Misaka and Kuroko blushed. Index kept gently brushing out Kuroko’s hair.

“Kuroko, I would never stand in the way of your love of Misaka. I understand how you feel. If, by chance, Misaka and I need to become united in marriage in order to legalize my status here, this is not in any way a statement on her feelings for you. Misaka *loves* you more than you know. It may not be quite the way you wish, but it is just as deep a love as you have for her.”

Kuroko looked at Index in shock as Misaka looked down at the floor. Index continued calmly brushing Kuroko’s hair.

“Kuroko, you have an exuberant view on life and love. Misaka gets great joy out of life too, like you, but hers is a child’s joyous, wonderous view. Mine is…complicated. With all my memories gone, all I can go on is what I have learned in the last year. I’ve had to learn about love all over again. It took Misaka to open my eyes to force me to realize my love for Touma.”

Index kept calmly brushing Kuroko’s hair. Kuroko didn’t know what to make of the situation, so she remained calm and waited.

“Kuroko I also learned about love from you too.”

“What?” said Kuroko and Misaka.

“You are what they used to call a “Free Spirit”, someone who is willing to show her emotions, her affection, the opposite of Misaka-san and myself. If Misaka chastises you with a shock or a push, you don’t retaliate, you just show more love. When Misaka and I are shown love or are worried about someone we love, we attack them, not show them the kind of love you do.”

Kuroko thought for a moment, then looked at Misaka who was blushing.

Index just nodded. She brushed some more. “Kuroko, don’t be in a hurry to grow up and do everything now. God willing, we will have years to be together, in one way or another,” said Index as she gently tied Kuroko’s hair into her usual pigtails. “And now your hair is just as pretty as you!”

Kamijou was on day three of having the dorm room to himself…well himself and Sphynx. His cupboards and refrigerator were stocked and he had not run out of food or drink once. No one was biting his head, watching boring TV shows, or constantly complaining about being hungry, abused, neglected, hungry, and starving.

When he went out for a walk to the market or the park there were no sudden shouts of “Face me, Coward.” Or challenges for a dual. He had not needed to run for his life in days. As he ate, walked, and studied in peace, he realized something important about the peace and quiet.

He hated it.

He laid back on his bed, which he had to himself for the first time since Index entered his life and started reflecting. What was he going to do? He had two beautiful but a little strange, girls that had confessed their love to him. He had known them both for a while, although all his previous memories had apparently been destroyed when he saved Index from the lock her Church had placed on her. So, he could only go by what he knew from the last few months.

He tried to figure out what he was feeling. They were both very good looking in different ways: Index with her long Silver hair and exotic looks; Misaka with her tomboy, fit, athletic figure. But, as he had apparently stupidly told Index at some point, he was more attracted to somewhat older women with large chests. And neither Index nor Misaka were very gifted in that area. So, they were very self-conscious about their lack of physical attractiveness to him. 

But they confessed anyhow.

How could anyone love him? His misfortune was legendary; how would anyone want to be with someone who constantly had bad things happen to him? He had heard the stories about how he had stripped Index the first day he met her as an example of his misfortune. His falling, his trouble with punks, his grades, his general misadventures.

But they confessed anyhow.

He had saved them both from deadly peril at great risk to himself, but that was not what had attracted them to him. Nor was it his Movie Star good looks, they were non-existent. His fabulous riches? Please! He was a broke, Level 0, average guy.

But they confessed anyhow.

He didn’t know who he could talk to for advice. Certainly not Tsuchimikado or Aogami, they would not have any useful advice. Fukiyose? She might give good advice, she might think he was hitting on her, she might…distract him with her formidable assets. Maybe Komoe-sensei? She might be helpful, but she tended to get really wrapped up in her student’s problems…

He sighed. Such misfortune. He would have to depend on himself.

How did he feel about them? Did he like them? Love them? How did he feel? He decided to concentrate on each one separately. How would his life be without Index in it? Well, Stiyl and Kanzaki have threatened many times to take her away and he had fought just as hard to keep her. Why? She complained all the time. Ate what little food he could afford, often times leaving him nothing for himself, and then go off and cause trouble. Yet, here he was, alone, with a full belly and larder…lonely.

And Biribiri. Always chasing him and trying to beat him in combat, yet the one time they had been serious, down by the riverbed, he had decisively beaten her when she foolishly grabbed his right hand and negated her own powers. In triumph he had raised his left fist and prepared to punch her in vengeance for all the times she had ruined his groceries, embarrassed him, and chased him for no reason.

She stood there, afraid, tears leaking from her eyes, but willing to take the punch. When he looked at her fear-filled face, eyes screwed shut in fear, tears leaking as she awaited his vengeance…he couldn’t do it. He tried again, but just couldn’t hit her. So, he fell to the ground, faking his demise and defeat, rather than hit the defenseless girl who had tormented him so.

And now he missed being chased, or sitting by the vending machine talking about nothing. He missed being with Misaka…and Index.

Why both? Why together? 

Of course! They were supporting each other, because they both were expecting him to reject them, because the old Kamijou told Index in an apparent fit of anger, she was too flat chested for him. She doubtlessly told Misaka. Neither one was experienced with boys, so they automatically assumed…

“Way to preserve their smiles, Kamijou!” his conscience said to him.

*Ribbit Ribbit*

< “Mikoto-chan, your Father and I will be in the City Wednesday Afternoon and Evening. We would like to pick you and Index up at the gates of your Dorm at 4PM for Dinner and Discussion. Cannot wait to meet my potential new daughter or daughter-in-law. Mom” >

“Misaka, what are your parents like?” asked Index on Tuesday night. “How will they be with a Gaijin asking to be their daughter or daughter-in-law?”

“My Mother is very open and kind and is accepting of all my friends,” answered Misaka. “I honestly am not that close to my Father, because I rarely see him; he is always gone on trips for business, so I don’t really know him anymore.”

“Well, if your Mother is like that, it stands to reason your Father would be too. I don’t think she would marry anyone unkind.”

“But, do you think they can accept me?” asked Index with a worried tone of voice.

Misaka sat down next to Index on the bed and hugged her. “If my Mother can accept Kuroko pursuing me and actually push me towards a relationship with the little pest, I think she will be more than open to having you as a daughter.”

Index looked at Misaka with her big, green eyes. “I’m so nervous.”

Misaka hugged her. “Me too,” Misaka stood up, “C’mon, let’s take a bath so we can relax and sleep. Kuroko has Judgement tonight and won’t be back until late. I’ll wash your hair, like I do for her sometimes; it will help you relax!”

“Bath time!” Index’s face lit up, “I love hot baths!”

The two girls grabbed their things and scrubbed up while the tub filled. Index’s hair was not as thick as Kuroko’s but it was much longer. She definitely enjoyed having it washed just as much as Kuroko, and then insisted on returning the favor for Misaka who luxuriated in the feeling as well.

They finished up their bath, then got in their pajamas and laid in Misaka’s bed to talk. The room lights were off; only Kuroko’s lamp was on for when she returned. Misaka talked a little about her childhood before coming to Academy City, Index talked about Magic, and they both talked about how they were worried they hadn’t heard from Kamijou.

“We did promise to give him time, Misaka.”

“I know, but if he has someone else, or isn’t interested, he should have the courage to tell us now and not make us suffer!”

“Misaka, he has had to put up with my biting and your electrocutions, we can have some patience with him.”

“Index, have you ever heard the patience prayer? ‘Dear God, Grant me patience…Right now!’”

Index paused for a minute, then giggled. Misaka giggled back and then they both were laughing.

The two of them laid there together, relaxing. Misaka looked at Index with half-closed eyes and said sleepily, “I hope my parents say yes, because you would be such a nice Sister.”

“I would love to be your Sister, Short Hair.” Index stroked Misaka’s head as she fell asleep. The worried lines in her face melted away and she looked even younger than her age. Index held her close to sooth her and drifted into a half sleep state.

Index awoke to the dorm room door opening and hearing a strangled cry of anguish. She opened her eyes to see a devastated Kuroko standing inside the room staring at Misaka who had enveloped Index under the covers, and was holding her close. The little girl looked like she was close to tears. 

Index worked a hand free and made the “Shhh” gesture with her finger at her lips. She motioned Kuroko over. Kuroko came over reluctantly, looking a mixture of devastated and furious. Tears were leaking from the corners of her eyes.

“We were talking and she just fell asleep a couple of hours ago. This bed is too small for three, but can’t you carefully teleport your bed next to it so all three of us can be together?” Index asked with a shy smile. “I would love if all three of us could be together and imagine how happy Misaka will be to wake up with all of us together, just a big, happy family.”

The clouds cleared from Kuroko’s face. “You would do this for me?”

“I told you I will not come between the two of you. My only caveat is don’t abuse her tonight; we are meeting her parents tomorrow and she is worried.”

Within short order, Kuroko’s bed had been gently teleported next to Misaka’s. Kuroko went and showered and changed and then crawled under her covers over to be near Misaka. While she snuggled up to Misaka, she actually reached over to hold Index’s hand. She looked into Index’s eyes and whispered, “Thank you.”

Misaka woke up the next morning from one of the best night’s sleep ever. She dreamed she was a baby and had been held in her Mother’s arms all night. She woke up before her alarm, feeling so relaxed. Then she was confused. She opened her eyes and saw she had her arms around Index and Index had a leg over her. But someone was behind her!

She recognized the arm that was over her from behind: it was Kuroko’s, but she was holding Index’s hand…not doing anything perverse. It seems she was just spooning Misaka from behind for warmth. But how? This bed was too small.

Her first impulse was to struggle free, but she waited a minute. There was no way Index would have allowed anything…weird to have happened…and she was clinging to Index. Slowly Misaka wiggled herself around until she was lying on her back and could see what was going on. Somehow, after she had fallen asleep, the beds had apparently been merged and she became a Misaka sandwich between Index and Kuroko. And the two of them were holding hands over her body. While snuggling her.

“Just when I thought my life couldn’t get any stranger,” Misaka thought to herself. Still, she felt…safe…

Misaka must have drifted off again, because the next thing she knew was her alarm was ringing to wake her up to get ready for breakfast and school. This time Index was awake and looking at her and Kuroko with a beatific smile, still holding Kuroko’s hand while Kuroko struggled to wake up. Misaka had her on arm over Kuroko’s shoulders, the other over Index’s. Kuroko’s eye’s focused first on Misaka’s face, looking fearfully for Misaka’s reaction to her being there. Then she looked at her hand being held by Index. Kuroko actually blushed a little.

“This was very pleasant,” said Index cheerfully, as she looked happily at the other two girls, “Kuroko, I may change my mind on Polygamy.”

Misaka and Kuroko both stared at Index for a moment in stunned silence, then Index started giggling and it was infectious and the other two fell in. “Index, every now and then you surprise me with your wicked sense of humor,” Misaka said. “I’m guessing the beds were your idea too?”

“I saw how sad Kuroko was last night; how she felt left out. I thought it only right to ask her to join us, but these beds are too small. Since she can move hers on her own, this worked out, everyone had a nice night’s sleep, and, to quote someone famous, everyone preserved their smile.”

“So sweet!” Misaka said, “OK, here is the plan. I have classes today, although I don’t know how I will be able to concentrate. As soon as they are done at three, I will race back here take a fast shower and put on a dress uniform and then, Index, my parents are picking us up at the gate at four.”

“I will meet you in the room at three,” Index replied.

The girls got up and washed and dressed. They went, ate breakfast, and the two students went to classes. Index went back to the room to meditate and keep calm. At three, Misaka came to the room, threw her bag on her bed, and ran into the bathroom to shower and change. When she came out, in a towel she was trying to brush her hair into submission while looking for her change of clothes. 

She ran back in the bathroom, dressed and came back out, still fighting her hair. “Honestly, Short Hair, how much trouble can that be?” said Index, “Sit here.”

Misaka sat next to Index, who took some spray she apparently got from Kuroko and used it on Misaka, along with Misaka’s brush and in a few minutes, tamed Misaka’s hair. “They’re your parents, they love you, you don’t need t be so nervous,” Index told Misaka, giving her little hug.

They both went down to the main gate and waited, Misaka greeting some girls she knew along the way. While they stood there…

< POP >

“Just a kiss for good luck,” said Kuroko as she gave them each a peck on the cheek.

< POP >

And then she was gone.

Promptly at four a small limousine pulled up next to them and the chauffer got out and opened the rear door. Misaka could see her Mother and Father inside. “Come in Mikoto-chan” her Mother called out.

Misaka helped Index with her robes into the Limo and then entered herself. “Mother, Father, this is my very good friend, Index. Index this is my Mother and Father.”

“I am very honored to meet you both, your daughter is wonderful and I am very lucky to have her as a friend,” Index said, bowing to Misaka’s parents.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you to, Index,” said Misaka’s mother.

“Yes, indeed,” said her Father, “I hope you like fish, because I have had a craving for it, so we are going to a seafood house.”

In short order the limo delivered them to an upscale restaurant and they were shown to a private room by the Maître d’ who seemed to know Misaka’s father well. After they ordered and started eating, Misaka’s family started interviewing, for lack of a better term, Index. Since her parents knew the basics about her Sisters, just not all the dangers Misaka had gone through, Misaka told them of the terrible nightmares, guilt, and depression she had been suffering and how Index had been the only counselor she had found that made the breakthrough to help alleviate all her issues.

Index explained how she was a refuge who had ended up in Japan and Academy City with no idea how she had gotten there, only that she had been chased there and finally rescued . But there was still a threat that the mysterious people could come and take her away without legal status for her.

Misaka explained that this was why she had reached out to her parents, that she felt she had a giri to Index for Index helping save her sanity when no one else could and that she knew her Father and Mother might be able to solve this. But, if it was too troublesome, she would still marry Index.

As the meal ended and her Father finished off the large bottle of Sake, he sat back and looked thoughtful. “Misaka-chan you are very serious about this, then.”

“Yes, Papa.”

“You know if you marry her, it can’t be a sham. You would have to get an apartment and truly live together; giving up your dorm room with Kuroko. You would, of course still attend your school, but they don’t have housing for married couples, I checked.”

Misaka gulped and looked at Index. Index just looked back, resolutely. “Papa, I did not know that, but so be it.”

“What about schooling for Index? Will she go to school? How will you pay for it?”

“Papa, assuming you and Mama still permit me my allowance, I can use that for Index to attend one of the less expensive schools as she would be a Level 0 and not qualify for any other.”

“Misaka,” her Mother asked gently, “Do you really care for Index that much?”

“I would do anything for her. She saved me, Mama, Papa.”

Her parents looked at each other. Her Father reached inside his suitcoat and pulled out a thick envelope. “Misaka, I’m not ready for another daughter, but I like your spunk in standing up for your friend. In this envelope are everything you need to get married: your emancipation papers, permission to marry, withdrawal from the dormitory, a signed pre-paid lease for a small apartment two blocks from Tokiwadai, and the Yôshi engumi form for you to formalize your relationship with Index.”

Misaka was shocked, about fifty percent that her Father had turned her down cold, without involving her Mother, and fifty percent that he had gone so far as to have all the documents drawn up for her, even to the point of getting them an apartment that was fully paid for a year. Under the table she felt Index take her hand and squeeze it, giving her support.

“Your Mother and I will love you no matter what you choose, as long as you stay in school and do your best. Of course, we will continue your allowance.”

He placed the envelope on the table between himself and Misaka. As she slowly started to reach for it, he raised his hand to stop her.

“If you are serious about this and about how great your need is, then I am placing one contingency on this offer. Since I will only be in town today, we will leave from here and go to the Courthouse, file the paperwork, and perform the Wedding now.”

“Papa?!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No pressure.
> 
> Thanks for reading. Thanks to everyone who has dropped by, commented, given Kudos, sent critiques! I appreciate it all!
> 
> More to come on all the stories that are still underway!


	15. I Kissed a Girl...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another short chapter as I get close to wrapping this story up. This chapter should provide closure to some things and move towards others.
> 
> My usual I don't own this anime or characters, I'm just a fanfiction writer, doing his best to keep people interested in his writings...
> 
> Thanks to everyone who wrote in, I love hearing from you.

“Yes, Mikoto-chan?”

“So soon?”

“I want to be there when my little girl gets married and this is my only chance, if you want to do this, it has to be now.”

Misaka looked at Index. Index nodded. Misaka stood up, took Index by the hand, and helped her stand. Misaka grabbed the envelope off the table and bowed to her parents. “Father, Mother, we accept your help and your gracious offer of the apartment for us both. Let us go and make this marriage official.”

Misaka looked at her parents who were making no effort to stand up. Her Mother looked at her fondly, then turned to her Father and kissed him lightly and said, “I told you she would do it.”

Her Father beamed at Misaka and then looked at her Mother and said, “I never doubted it; this was to prove it to herself.”

Misaka looked from her Mom to her Dad, confused. “What?”

Her Mother pulled a *much* larger file envelope out of her purse and motioned the two girls to sit back down. She handed the file to Misaka’s Dad.

“This is the paperwork for your Mother and I to officially adopt our new daughter into the family, bringing us one closer to a total of ten thousand,” he said with a grin. 

“But Papa, the Marriage? The Apartment?”

“Well, if you would rather do that, the paperwork is there…”

“But why?”

“Mikoto-chan, I’m not the best Father to you. I’m hardly ever here. I miss all your important events. I’m sure you feel like you hardly know me. Call me a fool, but I just wanted us to both be sure. But there is still one other person I need to ask.”

He turned to Index. “Index-chan, will you be kind enough to honor my Wife and I and join our family as Mikoto’s Sister?”

“Otōsan! Okaasan!” Index cried as she jumped up and ran to give them both hugs. “Finally, I have a Mother and Father!”

Misaka’s Father did something on his cell phone and a moment later a man came to their table. “Misaka-sama?”

“Yes, we are ready to sign, Judge. Please have a seat.”

In ten minutes Misaka’s parents and Index signed a large number of documents which the Judge then counter signed and sealed. Index received a Birth Certificate listing her birthday as the one on her Passport and the Judge said he would forward her Japanese Passport and other documents to Misaka’s dorm room; meanwhile she had temporary ID that allowed her to be in Academy City and Japan. Suddenly Misaka had a new Sister.

“Index! You’re Legal!” The two girls hugged happily. “Mama, Papa, I cannot thank you enough!” Misaka went to her parents and gave them both a hug and kiss, taking time to give her Dad an extra strong hug.

“Index, do you want to go to school and get an education?” asked her new Mom.

Index thought deeply for a moment. “But I am not an Esper, would I be accepted into a school here?”

“Sadly, not Tokiwadai with Mikoto, but we could have you enter Sakugawa right away, if you liked.”

“You would be with Saten and Uiharu,” Misaka told Index. “They have separate dorm rooms there, so you would have your own place, but be near them and not far from me!”

“What would I have to do?”

“Take some placement tests and then you would be assigned classes and start, you could be enrolled within the next few days,” answered her new Mom.

“What about my robes?”

“Religious dispensation can be arranged,” answer her new Dad.

“Then, domo Arrigato, I would like this very much, please,” answered Index.

Kamijou found himself wandering around the city, just to not be all alone inside his dorm room. His homework was all done, he had even studied for all his tests! It was dusk when he realized that he was at the bench…near a certain beverage vending machine. He looked around, hopefully, before sitting down with a sigh, leaning forward with his head in his hands.

“She won’t be coming,” a familiar voice said.

He looked up, only to see his nemesis, the little teleporter who hated him so.

“Did she send you to tell me or are you just here to gloat?” he asked her in an angry tone of voice.

“Hmph.”

Long silence while the two sat at opposite ends of the bench.

“So, why are you here, Kuroko-san? I would think you would be busy with Judgement or protecting your Sissy’s honor.”

“As if I need to tell my reasons to an Ape like you!” *sniff*

Kamijou’s heart softened, there was something wrong! “Did you and Biribiri have a bad fight? Are you all right?”

*Sniff* “Why? Do you want to make fun of me? Everyone else does because I’m so devoted to my Sissy.” *sniff* “All the girls at school make fun of me, ‘Oh look, Misaka’s shadow’.” *sniff*

Trying not to scare the little terror, Kamijou slowly slid a little closer to her. “What happened tonight? I know something is wrong, you are never out here alone like this…”

Kuroko looked up at him with big, water-filled eyes. “It’s you; it’s your Silver-haired friend; it’s everything. Misaka loves you, not me. I think she loves Index too. Why can’t she love me?” The tears started for real. “And I HATE that I’m crying in front of you, you damned APE!”

Kamijou was shocked, he never expected Kuroko to ever show her true feelings to him. He slowly slid the rest of the way over to her. She looked at him like a frightened animal. He didn’t do anything except open his arms and gently smile at her. Kuroko stared at him in amazement and then, slowly, hesitantly leaned into his hug. Kamijou slowly and gently wrapped his arms around her and held her as she cried and then sobbed. He gently rocked her and stroked her hair, saying nothing. Just letting her release her sadness and anxiety.

Eventually, Kuroko’s crying slowed down and she pushed back a little, without breaking the hug, and looked at Kamijou’s concerned face and she said,” Why?”

“Why?”

“Why are you being nice to me? All I’ve done is be cruel to you. Why? So you can brag about how you found me crying and laugh to your friends later?”

Kamijou looked at her in honest shock. “I don’t need a reason why. You were in pain and had lost your smile. You needed someone to help you and I was here. I would have done it whether I knew you or not.”

“I suppose you’ll tell Misaka all about this.”

Again, she saw his face look shocked. “Why? Why would I do that? Tell someone about your private pain? That is a cruelty beyond belief! I know you think I am not good enough for Biribiri, and that may be true, but have you ever heard of me being cruel?”

Kuroko actually leaned back into his hug and whispered, “No.”

Kamijou wrapped his arms back around her and asked, “So, what happened, why are you here tonight?”

“Don’t you know?”

“Misaka, Index, and I haven’t spoken since they confessed. They didn’t want my answer right away; they wanted me to have time to think, so they haven’t contacted me.”

“Baka!” Kuroko said gently to him, “And you didn’t at least send them a message that you missed them? Baka?”

Looking startled, Kamijou shook his head. “I didn’t think of it,” he said, “I thought they wanted their space too.”

Kuroko pushed away from him for a second and looked at his face. He was blushing and looked confused. She punched him in the shoulder. “Baka!” Then she moved back into his hug.

“Kuroko-san, what happened?”

“You know Index has been living with Onee-san and me?”

Kamijou nodded.

“We’ve been trying to find a way to make her legal so the Church people can’t drag her back to England and take her away…from you…and Misaka…” *sniff* “So, Uiharu suggested Yôshi engumi”

“But that’s to ensure a male heir for a family!”

“Yes, but it can be to adopt anyone into a family…or for someone to legalize a same-sex marriage.”

“What?”

“So, Misaka asked her Mother to see if her Father would agree to Yôshi engumi and adopt Index to be her Sister. But if her Parents would not agree, then Misaka was…was…Misaka will marry Index right away!”

“But that would just be for the paperwork, no?”

“Last night I came back to the dorm and they were in bed together!!”

Kamijou looked at Kuroko. “Misaka, who’s afraid of touching my hand, was in bed with Index?”

Kuroko looked embarrassed. “Well, Misaka was asleep and Index actually had me move my bed over so it would be like a sleep over, but still! Misaka never likes to sleep with anyone!”

Kamijou held Kuroko tight. “Listen to me. Index may eat like a bottomless pit, she may bite my head for the least little thing, but she would never try to “steal” Misaka away from you if it came to that.”

*sniff* “I want to hate you, but I can’t.”

“I’ll settle for you not kicking me in the head all the time,” Kamijou said, with a little laugh.

Kuroko laughed too. “Only if you don’t break Misaka’s heart. I already heard how you don’t like girls with small chests, so you already hurt her feelings there, even if you didn’t tell her directly.”

Kamijou looked up at the sky, with a “Why me?” look. “Kuroko, I’m going to tell you a secret that I would really like you to not tell anyone else. Misaka and Index already figured it out. If we all become close, you need to know it too.”

Kuroko nodded.

“I’m not that Kamijou that said those things to Index.”

“What?”

“Let me explain. This is what I’ve been told. There was a fight between myself and some people who were trying to take Index away and drag her back to another country. During the fight something happened and part of my brain was destroyed. Not injured, destroyed. I lost my memories of everything prior to about a year ago. I don’t remember my parents, my childhood, my friends, nothing. The Kamijou you see now, is brand new and started all over again about one year ago, building himself up on the body of the previous one.”

“That…that explains a lot. Like how surprised you were to see me teleport that one time.”

“The old Kamijou said that to Index. The new one is still trying to understand how he feels.”

“Have…have you decided yet?” Kuroko asked nervously.

“No,” sighed Kamijou, “I haven’t My thoughts are still all over the place. I need time. Plus now that they might be married?” Subconsciously he actually held onto Kuroko tighter.

“We’re both messed up right now, aren’t we, Kamijou?” Kuroko asked. 

“Call me Touma, since we are becoming friends. You can still call me ‘Ape’ in public, if you need to, to maintain your image,” he laughed.

“Only if you call me Shirai,” she riposted. You know, you’re the only boy I’ve ever let hold me, I can see why you have a harem.”

“I do not!”

“Keep telling yourself that, Touma.” Her cell phone buzzed with a message. She read it, sent a quick reply, and then settled back down.

“Am I bothering you then?” Kamijou asked. 

“No,” Kuroko replied, “I really needed comforting tonight, and you are doing an admirable job. I would like to stay here for a little while longer, if you don’t mind.”

“Aren’t you worried about your reputation?” Kamijou teased her lightly.

“No one would believe their eyes,” she replied with a laugh.

“Well, that’s odd,” said Misaka to Index.

“What, Short Hair?”

“When I asked where to meet Her, Uiharu, and Saten to tell them our news, Kuroko suggested the park at my usual spot, saying she was there already.”

“Is that bad?”

“Nooooo, just strange. Uiharu and Saten said it was fine and they would arrive there about the same time as us.”

Her parents dropped the two girls off at the entrance to the park and they both thanked their parents again, many times before the limo left. They then walked up to the entrance, meeting Uiharu and Saten, exchanging greetings.

“So, what’s this meeting about?” asked Saten all curious.

“Wait until we meet up with Kuroko so we can tell everyone at once,” replied Misaka.

As the group of four approached the machine and bench, they stopped, shocked by the scene they saw. Kuroko was in the arms of a boy…and not just any boy, but Kamijou! And she had her head on his shoulder! And she wasn’t murdering him!

Misaka was so shocked she didn’t know who to electrocute first.

Kamijou looked startled to see her. “Biribiri, Index! Uiharu, Saten! I wasn’t expecting you tonight! What brings you here?”

“Obviously!” said Misaka through gritted teeth, while a certain Nun was making tooth grinding noises next to her.

“Sissy! I didn’t tell him you all were coming, I wanted it to be a surprise, since you said you had news, and Touma said he hadn’t seen you in days!”

“Touma?” thought Misaka and Index to themselves.

“I was feeling a little down, so Shirai came to give me a pep talk and advice,” said Kamijou.

“Shirai?” thought Misaka and Index to themselves.

“Misaka,” said Saten, “What’s your news? Where you able to make Index legal?”

A wicked smile spread across Misaka’s face, ‘Touma’, ‘Shirai’, indeed! “Unfortunately my Father did not want to do the adoption process with Index, so instead he set up so we were married tonight. We will be moving into an apartment tomorrow, as we have to live together to prove we are indeed a couple and not a fake marriage. I will be withdrawing from the dorm tomorrow, but still staying in school and commuting.”

She could see that she had just stabbed Kuroko through the heart, but before she could apologize, Index grabbed Misaka and shook her really hard until her head vibrated.  
“MISAKA! For shame! How many times have I told you not to be so cruel to Kuroko?! How can you do that to her when she loves you so much?” Index shouted. “Kuroko, friends, her Father did actually say that to Misaka, but only as to check on her resolve. After that I was officially adopted and am now Misaka Index!”

Everyone cheered and gathered around to give hugs and kisses. But Kuroko did not kiss Misaka. Instead she went back to Kamijou and wrapped his arms around herself, asking for another hug, which he did.

“Touma and I have news too,” Kuroko announced to the group. 

Silence fell.

Kuroko looked up at his face, then looked at the group. She took a deep breath. “Yes, I confessed to Touma tonight and he accepted, so we are now a couple.” She then reached up, pulled down his head, and gave him a toe-curling soul kiss that left them both panting.

Dead silence.

*FLASH*

“And now I have a picture to remember this moment by,” Kuroko laughed.

< BUZZ SNAP CRACKLE >

“Get behind me, Shirai!”

< Ka-ZAM >

“Such misfortune”

“Toooouuuummmmmmaaaa!”

“No biting! Kamijou is an innocent victim!”

“YOU KISSED BACK!” < CHOMP >

“AIIIIIEEEEE!”

< POP >

“She’s off my head?”

“How am I on top of this machine? Get me down! I have more biting to do!”

Saten and Uiharu had fallen into each other’s arms they were laughing do hard. 

“Oh, so you two think this is funny?” came the sinister voice., followed by cracking and sizzling noises.

“Shirai! Save them!”

< POP > and the two were behind Kamijou, who held up his right hand just in time to divert another blast from Misaka.

“Misaka, you’re just mad because Kuroko out-pranked you!” said Uiharu. “Be nice and admit it!”

“Index,” Kuroko called up to the little Nun, “I promise you that Touma had no idea I was going to do that; honestly it was spur of the moment after all the teasing I’ve had this week from Sissy.”

The two girls calmed down and realized that their friends were right. Kuroko brought Index back down and then went over to Misaka and gave her a big hug. When Misaka finally started to hug her back, Kuroko went for the ‘kill’ and actually got in the same kiss on Misaka…for a moment. Misaka started to build up a charge to zap Kuroko, but then felt a hand touch her arm and the shock went away. Stunned, she gently pushed Kuroko away, feeling a little weak from the kiss. 

“What? Why?” Misaka cried to Kamijou.

“Because of what Index said,” he replied gently. “And tonight should be a happy night, even for Shirai. Try not to hurt her, Mikoto,” he whispered, “She loves you too.”

As Misaka turned to look for Kuroko, his words registered. “Wait! What did you mean by that?”

But Kamijou was gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have not gotten to the stories with Misaka's Dad, so I had to look him up. It says he has lots of connections, hence the Judge at the restaurant and the ability to get the paperwork he wants, when he wants.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed it, it was fun to write!
> 
> Thanks for reading, sending Kudos, writing comments and critiques, suggestions, etc. I appreciate it.


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